Even in the quietest moment......................

(an extract from my journal I just thought I’d share, rather topical and seasonal)

Midnight and the house is so still and quiet and I’m looking out of my bedroom window just watching the snow falling – what a wonderful experience – how quiet and peaceful, how gentle and still, how beautiful!. I felt this was a very private moment. I felt very calm, very peaceful and serene – nothing moving, no sound, just the sight of the falling snow from the night sky.

I thought back to the many times I’ve stood at the same window watching the snow fall as a kid, excited, anticipating, hoping it would snow all night so tomorrow I could go sledging with my friends, snowballing , build a snowman and those memories made me smile.

How differently we view things as adults!?
I now appreciate the chaos and disruption it will cause for many tomorrow morning  when people try to go about their normal daily business but for now looking out on this lovely scene it feels like something special like when I was a kid and I had a very warm feeling inside, I felt secure and safe and warm in my bedroom and  it makes you put your life into perspective, all the stresses and strains of the last week just melted away. I realised looking out on that scene that for all our knowledge and intellect as human beings there is one being more powerful than any mortal and that is Mother Nature herself.

I found this poem by an anonymous poet,

Falling Snow

A snowflake fell upon the ground,
And turned my frown into a smile.
And after all these years I’ve found,
That laughing can be still in style.

When you’re a kid you love the snow.
You’re not sure why but it makes you glow.
When you’re a kid the world is yours.
It waits for you outside your doors.

But with time, as you grow,
You forget to enjoy the falling snow.
And so quick, it may seem,
That you’re changing so much, you forget to dream.

Just stop, look around,
Make an angel on the ground.
Just stop, take time,
To find your rhythm and your rhyme.
Just stop…
Just stop…

http://poemsondemand.com/uncategorized/falling-snow/

Crisis? What crisis ?!

“Technology is a wonderful invention when it works! However, not so good when it doesn’t!” quote Emily Harris November 26^th 2010.

Ever had one of them weeks when you just know the gods or some higher being has it in for you? You know when Jupiter has aligned with Mars or something? Welcome to my  -  “the week that was !”

I should have known it was an omen on Monday morning when my hair straightners  blew up. Actually they didn’t blow up they sort of fell apart and dropped to pieces. As every dancer knows, a dancer just can’t function without her hair straightners!
And then how come when you pack your case to come home for the weekend there’s plenty of spare room but it doesn’t all go back in the case when you come to pack to travel back to London and you desperately need to fit that extra pair of boots  in and your woollies because they’ve forecast snow?
And why have they not built escalators and ramps at Kings Cross station and instead have 3 flights of stairs to manoeuvre with a case, computer and 2 bags?And why, oh why, when you are so close to a deadline for your first module of your degree course and need to get some blogging done does your computer crash and die ?

I have heard many people use the saying, “A person makes their own luck!” Where on earth does that saying come from and if you can make it I need to know how to make some pretty quick. Trying to write reflective blogs and journals and comment on other peoples blogs is pretty difficult with a dead PC.

Not that I ever have any  great connection with my lap top anyway. I use a  t mobile dongle  and  depending where I’m living at any particular point  can vary to the quality of the connection I get.  At my student flat in Sidcup the best place to network or do emails was sat on the loo as that was the best connection – in the bathroom! But when you’re on the move you cannot always connect to a landline so the dongle it has to be. 

Perhaps it was the entries in my journal for the beginning of the week that caused its malfunction  as I reflected on my life experiences this week in graphic details  in my journal and the most traumatic experience of my life so far – signing on for Jobseekers Allowance in an inner city office !! Not for the faint hearted or those with a delicate disposition I can tell you. This opened my eyes to the difficulties faced by the unemployed – it is depressing, dehumanising, degrading and disillusioning. I have enough material in my reflective journal for a full episode of “Little Britain” from this one experience alone and one day I may just share it !!

Oh, and guess where my passport details and the application form I need to print off for an audition on Friday are? Yes, of course, in my e mails !

So what on earth has any of this to do with my BAPP course? Well, it not only gave me plenty of life experiences to reflect on in my journal and record my thoughts and feelings of the 4 days events this week  but it also made me realise just how important my PC is in my life, just how dependant I am on being  able to access my emails, the internet and Facebook  not only for my professional life but for  my personal and social life. I realised just how much I rely on emails to communicate.
 
Quoting from the reader (Siemens, G 2004 on Connectivism) – “Over the last 20 years, technology has reorganised how we live, how we communicate and how we learn”. This is very true for me , the internet has become a very real part of my everyday life, I just didn’t realise how much until it was sick.
Having no computer for 3 days made me realise just how relevant and important my on line life is to me. My main source of accessing information is the internet and my main form of communicating with my agencies and applying for jobs is by email. I was almost bereft!

Of course I had my “blackberry” so all was not lost  - I can actually access my emails and apply for jobs and keep in touch with agencies, I can social network and text friends and family  and even look up anything I want on the internet via my phone but blogging was the difficulty on a 3ins x 2ins screen and accessing my reflective journal and updating it and of course printing important documents for my audition. I’ve learned that without the aid of all the technologies at my fingertips my scope is extremely limited. Fortunately for me it was a quick fix virus problem and my trusty Sony Vio was back on its feet by Saturday and I have my on line life back!

Thinking about critical reflection, it was also a good example of how reflecting in my journal was an evolving personal awareness and how these miniature crises in my life made me feel and my emotions  at the time. It made me put things into perspective and what seemed like mountains became molehills. My journal is almost like talking to a therapist or priest. I was able to recount the intimate details of my experiences through my journal and through this process find meaning and understanding.

Tufnell and Crickmay ( 2004) describe the importance of being engaged with reflection,
“It is through the sensuous world of the body, through our eyes, ears, skin, muscles and organs that we see, feel and respond to all that happens. The body is the ground from which all knowing of the world begins. It is within our bodies, in our instinctual and sensory responses, that we discover the changing field of what is happening to us. In the rush and pressure of our everyday lives we easily become numbed, cut off from our bodies. Without a sense of the body , of sensation and feeling we lose connection to what is around and within us, to the immediate and present moments in our lives.”

In the grand scheme of things my crises were quite trivial but this to me demonstrates that with our own reflective journeys of life experiences we can make sense of ourselves in the world. We tell and retell episodes both minor and major and discussing these and sharing with others we learn and develop.  The significance of these experiences was it made me think about how we view things. We are individually influenced by our moralistic, cultural and socialistic backgrounds. The way I saw each event as it happened is very different to how I view them now. I can see that how I interpreted each event as it happened was in a manner that was consistent with my emotional frame of mind at the time. But how could I have seen it differently? I was rushing to catch a train and several things happened to cause me stress and my emotional state was I saw them as great big issues.

Putting things into context,
(a) my straightners had been on their last legs for months and it was only a matter of time before they “fell apart”, so I should have replaced them weeks ago, I’ll just have to put up with the “kinky” hair until I can afford new ones. No one is going to die because I don’t have straightners.
(b) I have to learn to travel lighter and not take so much with me. I have been travelling the East Coast route for 3½ years and know there are stairs to encounter at Kings Cross so I should ensure I don’t have all that baggage to carry.
(c)  I need to get a paid job asap to avoid having to repeat the experience of signing on again and I now appreciate the plight of the unemployed!

I noticed now how to go back over the things that have happened this week I can view them differently. My mind set and my emotions are different.

Lewin, Kolb, Gardner, Honey and Munford help us explore how we can be  “active and persistent thinkers”. Dewey asks us to be “active, persistent and carefully consider.”

Analysing life experiences and choices provides the foundation for our future learning. Developing the ability to think critically enhances our academic writing and presentations and our ability to argue convincingly. The reflective person has the advantage of being able to cultivate these skills by taking responsibility for their disappointments and seek ways to enhance their professional competence.

Having a clearer idea of who we are as a person and a professional highlights our strengths and areas of challenge. Reflection requires that a professional can critically reflect on their decisions and behaviours.
“Reflection is indicative of deep learning and where teaching and learning activities are missing only surface learning can result” (Biggs 1999 in King 2002).

 
I have been blogging and reading other blogs and making comments frantically since getting my PC back. Alan Durrant advised, “I think it is really worthwhile to read and comment to Blogs to help develop critical thinking. Blogging your ideas and then commenting builds a dialogue with yourself and others and like any conversation has the potential to build deeper understanding and insights.”

 This was probably my other crises of the week. Being totally honest here, as I reflected in my journal, I often felt when reading blogs that I was reading the course “Reader” verbatum over and over  again and I went into total panic that I had totally misunderstood the requirement of the first module as others seemed to work their way one by one through each task quoting the “Reader” where as I was trying to apply the models that were in the “Reader” to everyday life experiences either personal or professional .

 Adesola said in one of her blog posts  “Positioning of Self”, that the tasks are “experiences” and that it is not like “hide and seek” or a “treasure hunt” where the treasure is hidden and we as students find it with the BA (Hons) as the prize!” I was not thinking of them as a list of  tasks  to be completed like maths exercises in a text book rather that I used experiences as a basis to look at how I learn from my experiences through networking as a professional and using the models to try and see how I learn? 

I would be interested what others think!?

I think this is probably why I thought people’s “Inquiry” blogs were much more interesting to read as they were what individuals really felt passionate about  - real issues that made you think  and have an opinion about to comment and debate and it was interesting from the point of view each said something about the individual person. You learned something about each person and what their goals are as a professional  and that made you think about your own hopes and aspirations in comparison.

I always engage with something that sparks my interest or thought processes  like Stephies blog about discipline, or Melissa’s about American dancers, or Ross’ about the spine or I read a newspaper or magazine article, something happens in the news or I have a personal experience that evokes a response and a debate. Such is the content of my own blogs, reflection on something that has engaged my interest  that I think improves my understanding of professional networking and reflective writing. Issues and events that I thought others with similar interests would like to share. I have read the module notes and the “Reader” over and over and over again and thought, ok yes I think I’ve covered that in my blog of................... , I’ve considered that there ......  etc, but this week I really don’t know !? Maybe I am just in total crisis here ? Help me out !

Most of the research I could find on reflective writing using technology was in the nursing, health and social education field.
The students were given a set of tasks to complete via blog postings and given specific instructions. They shared feedback through a comments section following every posting and instructors gave comment on each blog entry.     

http://www.springerlink.com/content/jh037p741n254775/

Interestingly for me in my crisis mode, one of the criticisms was that because students were not required to formally respond there was not enough evidence to form an impact on the student’s ability to reflect. Some students were more active than others and some put off posting so there was limited potential for peer interaction.

Looking at this course I wondered if there was any indication of your success or failure on your ability to reflect from the number of followers you had and the number of comments on your blogs. Certainly some students had many comments from tutors and other students, others very little and some none at all. Despite my efforts to engage I had not found anyone to interact with. I’ll be really honest here, it makes you wonder if anyone has read anything you’ve actually blogged!

It reminded me of Facebook and teenagers who measure their popularity from the number of “hits” they get and the number of “friends” they have in their directory. Perhaps Adesola’s reminder that we are nearing the deadline for the first module sent me into my final crisis of the week but I do feel I am swimming against the tide a little as I have had very little feedback or peer interaction. I think this is a very crucial part of our learning process and the reflective models we have read about.

I came across another interesting article that didn’t necessarily agree critical reflection is always a good thing – this was based on Meirow’s  Critical Reflection (1990)  who said, “perspective transformation is the process of becoming critically aware – that adults are better motivated to better understand the meaning of their experience.” The article went on to suggest that reflection on its own doesn’t lead automatically to integrative perspectives. In a real world it could lead to self-justification, self-indulgence and self-pity. Without feedback and criticism it does become very self –indulgent – we are not learning because we don’t know where we are going wrong or could improve. Extending evaluative feedback provides the learner to continue to think about the topic, pointing out other possibilities to encourage additional thinking. Dialogue with one’s self through experiences is very useful but deeper learning I think can only come with feedback.

Alan said, “Do try and keep up the blogging and commenting even if it does seem artificial at times.” I think perhaps, and this is just my opinion, that people are just ticking off the tasks and not engaging in conversation via the comments as I have not had one response to any of the comments I have made to then engage in dialogue so I feel that my comments have been artificial, they’re merely comments not opening up discussion. Does this make sense to anyone else? In lay mans terms, are we not just working through the tasks like exercises in a book and therefore it loses its true meaning!?  [For example task 3d – choose 10 other blogs randomly to comment on and I’ve completed the task!? ]

As a dancer I am used to constant critique. In classes, rehearsals and auditions we are constantly corrected, criticised, praised and given feedback as we are learning a piece of dance and this is the only way  you can analyse where  you need to improve, where you are and which direction you may need to change to. Without feedback and input from others how do we know where we are and whether we are learning !?

I think I may be nearing the end of my crisis today!


References:

Establishing Professional Practice - Module Handbook for WBS3002    - Middlesex University 

Reflective Practices - A reader complied by Adesola Akinleye (2010)


Tufnell, M & Crickmay, C L 2004 A widening field.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/jh037p741n254775/                                 

Atherton JS (2010) Learning and Teaching; Criticcal Reflection [On line] UK -

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/critical1.htm

 

 

The Science of Dance....
....(Inquiry Task)!!

My passion has always been Dance ever since I can remember. In fact it’s not just a passion it’s an obsession and my dream has always been to perform. Dance is like the air I breathe and it is something I cannot live without. However I am also realistic and realise that any sensible person has to have a plan B.

Bird College (where I did my professional dance training) is one of only a small handful of colleges in Britain that include modules in their professional dance course in dance science and this quickly during my second year became my Plan B.

I am really enthused and fascinated by the way we can explore the mechanics of dance movement and optimal performance by promoting the health care of the dancer. I always found information about the body and its mechanics and functions particularly fascinating and I constantly try to apply this knowledge in my dancing.
It is exiting to  discover the physics of how a dancers body works and why, for example, a female dancer's co-ordination and balance can be affected by her menstrual cycle!

As an academic discipline this is a relatively new phenomenon.
Dance science is the scientific study of dance and dancers as well as the practical application of scientific principles to dance. Its aims are the enhancement of performance, the reduction of injury and the improvement of well-being and health. Its specific concerns include the biomechanical, physiological, nutritional and paediatric and psychological aspects of dance.

Increasingly more and more dance companies employ dance scientists to provide support services to their dancers – physiological and psychological.

One such company is New York City Ballet as I remember researching this for an assessment essay in my 2^nd year at Bird. 


Dancers are tremendous athletes who are both artists and athletes performing at the highest levels of human performance and a strong knowledge and appreciation of “dance medicine” will help a dancer understand how to help prevent injury and stay healthy and have optimum performance.

A dancer needs to be constantly aware of the body and focused on the process to achieve their goals by getting there in a healthy way through diet, exercise, well-being and a knowledge  in the prevention of injury. This is the bare bones of dance science.

I am always amazed when talking socially with other dancers that they don’t realize that their lifestyle could be preventing them from achieving their full potential and their goals. This may just involve a change in diet or sleep patterns.

For example;  at college my main frustration was for some reason, although I am extremely flexible, I could not manage to get a very high developpe in second position. The highest I could go was just above waist height. I really wanted to improve it. My developpe devone & derriere was fine. I discussed this with all the ballet staff and they gave me various exercises to do every day which were supposed to help but despite my frantic efforts, with my leg up on the door every night, it did not improve. Then in second year I discussed this with Drew, the dance science tutor, and she asked me to write down everything I ate for a week and go back to see her. Analysing my results Drew suggested the level of fruit in my diet was far too high. How can that be? Fruit is the healthy option is it not? But actually fruit has a very high content of natural sugar, fructose which was affecting the strength of my gut no matter how many abdominal exercises I did. So I reduced the amount of fruit I ate dramatically, replacing it with salad or vegetables which don’t have the fructose and after many weeks of following this diet of less fruit (nothing happens overnight I’m afraid) I can say my devloppe is at shoulder height. I found this fascinating! It’s purely science!

I think this whole concept appeals to me as it is so closely linked to physical fitness and “sports science” and as I have said before in my blogs I am a bit of a sports nut  and health freak too.  I had to make a big decision at 13 years old whether to follow the sports or dance path as I was a championship swimmer as well as a dancer and I couldn’t train and follow both pursuits to the level required as the commitment and dedication needed to both as individual pursuits were too demanding to pursue both but I do still have a love of sports too.

The way dance science differs to sports science is, obviously the focus is on dance and the special considerations that this involves, but also dance science studies somatic techniques including the practices of pilates and yoga, which for any of you who have followed any of my previous blogs are two of my recreational past times. I run and do pilates almost everyday and a full yoga class at least once a week, if possible. Pilates and yoga are fantastic work outs for focusing on the core and particular muscle groups, it also helps elongate the muscles in the body and teaches you how to isolate working one area of the body, although a lot of the exercises do focus on numerous muscle groups at one time!

Dance science broadens the options for dancers, from performance to more academic positions of employment and this is why it became my plan B. The dance world needs healthy, fit dancers and the field of dance science works to help dancers increase performance abilities and bodily awareness while decreasing injuries. I thought that this information would be invaluable to me as a dancer and performer myself but also if my performance career didn’t take off or ended for any reason or I got injured this would be a career path that would still involve me in the subject closest to my heart, dance,  but something else I also feel passionate about, health and fitness.  

I want to have a better understanding of  how people learn complex movement and develop their skills (known as motor learning). I am also really interested in the effects of dance (and the various dance styles) on young people and finding out how it can help their physical, psychological and social well-being and development. Dance can still be deemed as less important than other physical activities  and I think it’s important to show the many ways it can benefit people. I also think I may , after my blog about reflective thinking and my experience, whether having dyslexia would affect your ability to retain movement as a dancer.Dance science is still a newly developing area but I would like to pursue this further in the future.

References:

Establishing Professional Practice - Module Handbook for WBS 3002 - Middlesex University

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_science

Extract from Injury Prevention Essay - Emily Rose Harris, Bird College 2008.

Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology by Karen Clippinger.  

Casting the net !!


At the weekend I decided the big pile of old magazines and newspapers dumped in the corner of my room had to be weeded out and tidied. The pile was unruly and  getting a bit out of hand but I really don’t like to throw them away so I always leaf through them carefully  and select ones with favourite articles, recipies, beauty and health tips I want to hang on to a bit longer and then recycle the discarded ones.

Anyway decided to do the deed and as I was going through a pile of “The Stage” from August the headlines of 2 articles caught my eye about Casting in the online age.

I’d not noticed them before as I normally flick to the job pages and then may read a West End review or something but thought there may be something interesting I ought to be aware of especially as the opening line read,
“Michael Wharley observes the accelerating pace of change and suggests actors and agents need to do more to keep up! For the broader process of casting and the fundamental mechanisms by which actors or agents promote and engage with the profession there is a word that has huge implications – the internet!” One thing this course has done for me is to promote my individual awareness and exploration of such articles I probably wouldn’t have taken much notice of before. I now explore any issues relating to the internet and networking especially issues related to the arts. It has given me the opportunity or should I say “forced” me to think about these issues and how they affect me.

Michael Wharley is a London based head shot photographer and freelance arts writer.

The article states in 2010 there are endless websites for those of us seeking or supplying casting profiles and the options are “dizzying”............. Spotlight, The Stage, Casting Call Pro, Cast Call, Cast Web, Cast Net........ it seems the list of websites to promote ourselves as performers are endless. Some I had heard of others I hadn’t, so I have definitely added to the pool of web sites that I can use in the future.

Obviously Spotlight is the one that is the most well known, of which I am already a paid up member, with over 36,000 profiles.  This implies to me straight away how important a good profile is. As the head of Spotlight, Ben Seale puts it, “Print directories are still extremely popular but are used more as a reference tool these days. The business of casting is largely done on line.”

Spotlight’s Link casting software is now everywhere at once and its strength lies in having integrated the content of  36,000 online directories with the casting communities breakdowns. This is an amazing concept and I was fascinated that the weekly e mail to distribute castings that I receive has gone through this process. Two separate parts of the process have been brought together simplifying casting for actors, agents, casting directors and their clients.  This means performers and agents are not sent untimely and unsuitable submissions and a barrage of casting information from multiple sources. Their Link system cleverly matches the casting requirement to the profiles.

By adhering on line to strict editorial standards Spotlight has a reliable reputation for anyone involved in casting to trust its resources. For me this is of significant importance learning that the information supplied to Spotlight is being used for the correct purpose and that I can trust its integrity. This is especially meaningful when I read other articles showing the downsides of the net, cyber bullying, identity theft, etc and the trials and tribulations of Facebook. I feel it is essential to me in my professional practice to have the confidence in what is out there about me. It made me feel better reading in black and white by a reputable authority that the agency I use to profile myself has a reliable reputation.

One agency I have not previously looked at is Casting Call  (I think this site is mainly used by “pure” actors, I tend to use dance and musical theatre based agencies) which is widely becoming a credible site in the casting process, now having 29,000 members each with a headshot and training credits. Casting Call now offers new ways of searching its actor database and allows actors to connect with each other on a professional networking model. CVs, show reels and photos are shared across the supply chain at the press of a button. So this is one new way in which the internet is taking a fundamental role in casting.

Michael Wharley conducted a survey for the article of 100 casting directors across the spectrum of television, theatre, film and commercials casting.

What was interesting was when asked to select the most important resource for accessing an actor online before audition, casting professional responses were -
9%      specified headshots
28%    said credits
21%    show reels but
41%    said the whole package.

 This suggests that casting professionals are using a performer’s on line presence to dip in and out of various resources and according to the survey many performers and agents need to do more to keep up.
This was suddenly very relevant to me – what could I do to improve my web presence as a performer but ensure the information was being viewed by the most relevant people?

In the survey findings casting professionals commented about the need for credits to be regularly updated. Even though this may seem a very basic requirement in the online era, the CV should be a growing document and an organic representation of the actor’s career and skills. It seems many CVs on Spotlight are out of date. This was a good reminder to me of the importance of keeping my information up to date. We were constantly told at college that a poor CV creates a bad impression and you risk your CV being dismissed before it is even read. You don’t want it to look as though you haven’t been working recently when you have and you don’t want to miss out on an audition opportunity because you haven’t included skills on your CV that you have put time, effort and money into achieving.

This made me feel quite pleased with myself because I had just updated mine last week in my personal documents, on Spotlight and Star Now, which are the 2 agencies I subscribe to, to include my latest panto job. However I think I could improve the overall layout and presentation quality of my CV as mine is based on a template we were given to use at college and this is something I could take forward and work on improving.  

Secondly, headshots which are a fundamental, long standing touchstone of the profession are being used more successfully. Performers may select a main photo for the print edition of Spotlight but on line on average four shots are attached to a CV. Being able to select the best photo for any given application with a few clicks of the mouse makes this really useful.

The same survey revealed that,
96%         of casting professionals still view the headshot as important to the future casting process and
48%         prefer black and white,
17%         colour and
35%         didn’t have  a preference.

This implies to me that the headshot is still an important casting tool and will continue to give performers the chance to make an impression on agents and casting directors whether they are new graduates like myself or well established in the industry. It is a good way to sell yourself and in an expensive business, the headshot is still relatively a cheap and cost-effective way to promote yourself. More good news for me!

As the collective understanding of what makes a good likeness for casting purposes, headshots are timeless and have been used since 1927 by Spotlight. Michael Wharley states, “Leafing through the editions of Spotlight from 1927 to 2010 it is amazing just how little the form has changed in 90 years. The headshot is still regarded as accurately previewing the performer”.

Therefore this re emphasises to me what I was taught at college  -  tutors  always stressed the importance of having good headshot photographs. It is an essential promotional tool and they should be updated every couple of years or so. I am quite happy with my headshots, I have 5 different versions, 3 colour/2 black and white, which were taken by a professional head shot photographer who came into college in our last term and I am happy it is an accurate, current likeness.

What I have learned is that I ought to have included on my profile a black and white version and a colour version. I currently only have a black and white headshot as my main profile picture on Spotlight.

The biggest shortcomings according to Wharley’s findings are when it comes to multi-media.
When accessing an actor prior to audition,
57%           of the casting professionals surveyed said they use on-line show reels a lot,
15%            a fair bit and
28%           very little,
which is 72% who use online video resources more than a little and yet, only 29% of Spotlight members and 10% of Casting Call members have video content on their CVs. This statistic quite surprised me.

I hadn’t thought about this till now (I don’t have a show reel) and how this could play an important part in my on line presence. I think this puts a burden on to us as individuals to maintain a diverse and up to date web presence but given the huge potential rewards in such a competitive industry it has to be worth pursuing. It would give me an opportunity to showcase the full range of my abilities.

It was interesting to learn that the average show reel is 186 seconds long but the average casting director will watch less than one minute. Casting directors and agents receive thousands of CVs and show reels and do not have time to watch every performer for several minutes. The first 30 seconds are the most important and should leave a good impression and the viewer wanting to see more!!

Surveyed for the article, 62% said they preferred to view separate short, contrasting clips. Therefore if I have several contrasting minute long clips alongside each other my CV would not only look comprehensive but would give a casting director what they need to see at their fingertips. However it is also interesting that they said they would be put off by a poor quality one.
This is very useful information for me. I realise this could be very important for me in the future. The only downside is the cost of a good quality show reel, as they are really expensive. 
I wondered what other performers who are on the course thought who have quite a lot of professional experience and may have show reels of their work. Do they think having a show reel has been beneficial in getting an audition or jobs?

It was also interesting to learn that in the US, video has become a basic element of any performer’s on line presence whether it is onscreen clips or simply a profile and full length shots while the actor provides a self summary.
Increasingly in the US , casting directors are using video as a first stage audition filter requiring actors to submit set audition pieces filmed on as basic a device as a mobile phone before subsequently seeing a select handful in person.

Wharley asks the question, “could this be the next stage forward for us in the UK?”
He does suggest, however, that whatever the possibilities presented by online tools this will only ever be, in his opinion, a precursor to the audition where actors can show their true talents, characteristics and skills. He goes on to further suggest it can only be a matter of time though before the whole casting process is on line as any time saving device in a budget pressed industry will find its use.

Is it then, that in the future we will only be invited to audition on the strength of our video footage? I realise if this is the future of the industry then I need to move with the times. I don’t mean I’m going to try and film myself on my mobile phone doing some complicated dance move and be all over You Tube tomorrow leaping about in some badly made home movie but I need to consider investing in having a quality show reel made to promote myself for the future to put on my professional profiles .

It made me recall what Betty Laine said to a group of us at an audition; “I am looking for marketable products!” I hate to condone this side of the business but we have to perhaps put that statement into perspective rather than react to what it might mean on face value. We all need to  be “discovered” somehow and we all have to make the best use of the tools available to “market” ourselves even though we hope we are being selected on our talents.  One quote I read from an advertisement for a photographer is quite apt, “Take a step back for a moment and forget you are an artist and concentrate on the product you are selling! Know what your strengths are and then package them in a way that is attractive to the industry.”

Reflecting on my thoughts and feelings whilst reading the article I think this was probably the most significant article I have read and I had almost missed it – August 26^th it was published in “The Stage” and I read on the 20^th November.

Performers need to invest in marketing and promotion as much as any other self employed business person and we should never sit back  to wait for the next job opportunity we have to be pro-active and market ourselves and treat our careers as a “business”. I have realised that having up to date, well produced promotional material makes a performer look professional and serious about their career and therefore a more desirable person for a director or agent to work with. If a performer can get the marketing right then they are putting themselves in the best position from which to approach the business.

I found it made me want to take action to improve my profiles basically I think because of the “real” statistics that were quoted from casting professionals. That really made  me analyse  how in the future my profile could be viewed and could make a difference whether or not I was selected for audition. 

It is going to be up to me as an individual to provide and maintain a comprehensive and up to date web presence and to make sure that what I put on line is of the highest quality.  I have learned I need to explore further in the future the possibilities to improve my on line presence through new photographs and a show reel to enhance my on line information.

So discovering this article has helped me identify what I need to do for my future profiling, and even though for the short term this may have to be piece meal due to the financial considerations it has given me an awareness of what can improve my on line presence and has inspired me to work towards achieving that to assist me in my professional image. My next step is to make my CV portfolio more “glamorous” and to get some exposure.................... I need to cast the net more widely !!


References:

Reflective practices - A Reader compiled by Adesola Akinleye.

The Stage Newspaper - August 16th and 23rd

Facebook in the news again......................

 

Just a reminder to us all again to be careful what we post on our Facebook accounts. Facebook was in the news again today as a Church of England bishop who made “deeply offensive” comments on  Facebook about the royal engagement has been suspended from his public duties “until further notice” ..................... ouch!

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11822681

Facebook gets a Facelift !!!



Following my blog on cyber bullying after reading the article in Glamour magazine I decided to put my money where my mouth was and deep cleanse my Facebook profile, sort of give my Facebook a facelift. I have deleted lots of old pictures and only retained the ones I wouldn’t mind anyone seeing. I have put one of my professional headshots as my profile picture and changed my about me profile and also the settings to private so that only people who I accept as  a friend can actually view my  Facebook   account...................................  I think this is more professional looking and I think I will be more in control of the information people see about me !!

Glamour Article (December 2010)- can they really say that?

 I’m not sure I’ve mentioned before but I am a typical girlie girl and like clock-work every month Cosmopolitan and Glamour  magazine (the ultimate woman’s guide to.... well, everything!!!) come gliding through my letterbox – Yes, I admit I subscribe!

Anyway, among all the fashion pages, beauty tips and sex and relationship articles, I came across a very interesting article about cyber-bullying! Since starting this course I immediately take an interest in everything and  anything “cyber”.  I have done a previous blog on cyber bullying from the point of view of it being one of the downsides of social networking sites but this article caused me to reflect again on this very real issue that is on the rise in an ever expanding “online” world and is an issue in my particular profession that we cannot afford to ignore.

A few months ago I would have read the article just the same but not particularly linked it to myself or thought about it in any depth and how it could affect me. I now read such articles and they make me think how I use the net.

 I thought I’d share my findings and thoughts on my blog as the article is, how do I put it, engaging and rather shocking! I think in my particular business I think we need to be aware of some of the terrible things that do happen. These are real life stories, quite extreme, but nevertheless a sign of our times. Often we think this can never happen to us but to these women in the article the evil and odious effects of being bullied have caused severe depression, eating disorders , self mutilation and even suicidal thoughts and can have long and debilitating effects .

The definition of cyber-bullying is;
          ‘when someone uses technology like the internet to deliberately hurt, humiliate, harass or threaten someone else!’

The article covers several stories about innocent girls who have been bullied through sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube,  and how easily they can be targeted by  horrible, vicious attacks through comments online and some of them are literally death threats!!! I find this to be rather sick and very wrong as quoted, “social networking sites make it alarmingly easy to escalate cyber-bullying to levels previously inconceivable”. The article is also about how these women are starting to fight back and challenge bullies through the legal system.

Me, personally, I have never been a victim of cyber-bullying but being in the profession I am in, how long will it be until I see a photograph of me on a site with hundreds of derogatory comments????

 Mean taunts and comments are everywhere from blogs to social networking sites. Just one insult can sour dozens more and give the malice more momentum. It is really alarming how easy it is to escalate bullying levels through social networking sites. This is because few are caught and even fewer held responsible for what they post but more and more women are fighting back by exposing their attackers or helping to lead awareness campaigns this hopefully will alter the online landscape and give cyber bullies fewer places to hide. In one particular ground breaking case in August of this year a judge ordered Google to disclose the author’s email address in a bullying case. I think this is good news for all of us.

“Bullies are, by their nature, cowards – in school and society” but what kick do people get out of writing such cruel and hurtful comments on other people’s photographs?? I wonder! I mean, imagine how the person feels when they read these comments, what will they think? I know if it was me – I’d feel awful and probably break down and cry saying ‘so this is what people really think when they look at me?’ Having been the subject of bullying as a child I know how this can destroy self confidence and self esteem for many years.

Cyber-bullies tend to ‘zero in on two things: physical traits and sexual behaviour’, so it doesn’t matter what the person’s like as a person or what they would be like to talk to, the focus is only on the way they appear in a photograph. A lot of cyber-bullying can turn into stalking too as someone becomes so obsessed they have to send 10-20 derogatory comments a day just to get their fix !! A little bit like a drug or alcohol addiction really....?? It really is just an ‘act of gratuitous nastiness to satisfy their own twisted nature’!   

The article discusses several examples but one that stuck out to me was about an American ex-model, Liskula Cohen who’s 38 and from New York. (Models, dancers and actors all promote themselves in similar ways through photographs and showreels so this is why I chose her as an example.) Liskula sought legal advice against her cyber-bully; she was called a “psychotic, lying, whoring skank” on Skanks in NYC, a now-defunct US website seemingly launched just to attack her reputation. When she sought legal help to unmask her tormentor, she got little encouragement. Some judges – in the interest of protecting free speech – have refused to require websites and internet service providers to indentify anonymous posters.

Liskula didn’t let that stop her though and asked the court to force Google, whose subsidiary hosted the blog, to identify the author. Eventually the matter was, in what legal experts call a precedent-setting ruling and a judge ordered the company to disclose the author’s email address but Google said in a statement that it would only provide information about the user in response to a court order – Google said ‘they always defend the privacy of its users. Liskula learnt that her cyber-bully was actually someone she knew and all she wanted from her bully was an apology which she did eventually receive. Liskula’s theory of cyber-slime (a nickname for cyber-bullying) is, “People sit at home bored out of their minds and spew hate”. Liskula’s torment was played off of her sexuality.

In an age when everyone from potential dates to prospective employers Google’s first and asks questions later – web chat matters!!!

Most people view insults appearing online as a severe form of social rejection! Take one of my friends for instance, she has a hair lip and was very badly verbally bullied at school but she had lots of friends and many people liked her. One day, back when I still had my Bebo account, I had an album which had individual pictures of all my friends in (it was a very common thing and I was only about 13) which featured a picture of my friend with the haired lip. A few people had written some really awful comments about her photograph calling her ‘fishy’ and ‘your mum hated you so much she hit you with a shovel’!!! I was appalled and deleted all of those comments along with the album, I felt so bad for my friend! It shouldn’t have to be this way but unfortunately the net gives bullies so many more options to hurt and torment their victims and they can hide their identities which means they can be more aggressive. It is a lot easier to hurt people when you’re not looking them in the eye!!

I really think this is a serious issue! I have been socially and verbally bullied throughout my childhood years by all different sorts of people! I will never forget one day I walked up to a friend in the playground just to say hi and a boy said to me “f*@king hell, you’re ugly!” – I know how it feels to be belittled and to feel so small and intimidated by, let’s be honest, cowardly pathetic people. It hurts. I know that comment has stuck with me for a very long time and I’ve been criticised a lot for the way I look because of the industry and career path I’ve chosen to pursue!

Luckily, I think, we’re becoming more and more aware of cyber-bullying in the UK and the first case has been through the courts  and the  bully is now on a 3 year restraining order and had to pay a huge fine. This poor girl used to receive 10 messages a day telling her “I am your stalker – I just love stalking you and bullying you. And if you block me you stupid b@tch, I will log on under another name and keep on doing it until you are out of this site forever!” And this ‘site’ was in fact YouTube! She received all sorts of posts saying that “you are ugly and don’t deserve to live” and “you need plastic surgery” until finally threatening to slit her throat, she’d had enough and reported it to the police who at first ignored it as they said they wouldn’t be able to trace the address and wouldn’t be able to find the bully. Fortunately for this girl, the bully slipped up and left a real name when it was reported to the police it was found that the bully was a 29 year old woman who was soon arrested, she did only get off with a warning though until she re-offended by posting thousands of comments of abuse and threats aimed at others posing to be this innocent girl until she finally got caught and things were taken more seriously. What do you think??   

Reading this article has made me reflect again on this issue. I think there are some really scary people in this world and the net can be a dangerous place as it’s been made so easy for cyber bullies but perhaps the time is coming when it will be easier for people to get justice against bullies . During the first few weeks of the course it has made me realise that I have to be so careful with what I post on my Facebook, blog or any other site. As a dancer I am in a very vulnerable position to criticism, you receive it all the time and sometimes it can make you feel totally stuck, you lose your motivation and your enthusiasm and feel like packing in and giving up but you push through and persevere!  It is a fact of this business you have to toughen up to personal , sometimes rather blunt criticism but this is normally criticism you can learn from and after a few days you put it to the back of your mind and forget it as it goes with the business.... BUT if vicious, malicious messages and comments are being posted online constantly, like these girls were experiencing, there is no way to hide it even if you delete the comments you still have to face it day after day!

 I thought I would share Glamour’s tips to help us protect ourselves from cyber-bullying:

1.       Don’t post ‘girls gone wild’ –worthy (pictures you wouldn’t want to strangers to see) shots of yourself on Myspace, Facebook or anywhere they can be copied.

2.      If someone is saying malicious things about you online, email a polite request to the site’s web master, asking that the offensive material be deleted.

3.      Still concerned or, worse, worried for your safety? Harassment is a criminal offence. You’re perfectly within your rights to contact the police.

I agree with Glamour that these issues should be highlighted more and bad cases should be dealt with by police or even still in our justice system as cyber-bullies are dangerous and how does anyone know whether they are all mouth?? Maybe they will eventually become so twisted with spite and hate that they do act out the actions they threaten??!! I feel we should stand up and speak out about this – ‘their cowardly, pathetic actions should not be tolerated!’

I think my experiences on this course and the knowledge I have got about web 2.0 will make me more aware about my personal information to try and protect not only my identity but my safety and privacy. At the moment there are no specific laws in the UK governing online harassment but cyber bullying can be dealt with under regular harassment law but you have to have proof of at least two acts designed to cause alarm and distress I think this article has taught me we definitely need tighter controls over internet bullying in the meantime at least this gives us the knowledge that there is something we can do and just exactly how careful and wary we should be.

Reading the article reminded and has taught me that being in this profession with all the tools of Web 2.0 out there to promote yourself that I have to be very wary and selective as to what I post onto sites. I need to be 100% happy that all my information is what I want other people to see and that I am content with all my photographs and showreels that they are for promotional and professional reasons only not photos of me falling out of a club drunk or dancing around with friends on the dancefloor! I have learnt that I want to be in control as much as possible of the information that is out there about me.

After all who are these people?

And should they really be allowed to say that? I think we should make sure they are not wherever we can ! 

Journal writing experience - comments on Stephies blog


I have been reading other peoples blogs to find out their thoughts and feelings on the reflective writing task and I wanted to comment on Stephie’s entries of  30^th October and 1^st November because I could empathise with a lot of her thoughts and feelings.

Unlike Stephie I don’t work in education but I do dance and musical theatre workshops for school groups, community groups, dance groups and theatre groups. This means I am given a task and I prepare a 2 hour workshop around that requirement, this can be pure dance or more often musical theatre. I probably do maybe 2 or 3 a month at most so I am not in this situation on a daily basis like Stephie.

The difference I think with my groups is they are usually small (max 20 students) and the students are usually interested in the subject and have a background in performing arts because they want to go on to higher education or vocational studies in that field so I don’t face a lot of resistance to what I want to do with them, usually quite the opposite. I usually don’t have a discipline problem and the students participate and work hard.

However reading Stephie’s blog about the discipline issues she is facing and how she is trying to deal with them made me think about an evening only a few weeks ago when I faced a very similar issue. Like Stephie I wrote about it in my reflective journal.

 I was asked by the artistic director of a local theatre company to do a workshop based on the Wiz which is a 70’s re write of The Wizard of Oz so they could use the choreography for their up and coming pantomime in December. This is a theatre company for young adults age 14 to 21. The song they wanted me to work on was “Ease on Down the Road”, a very 70’s style, funky, up-beat ensemble number. I was given no pre requisites or boundaries to work within. The email merely said full ensemble and principals, needs to be lively and full of energy. I spent several hours over 2 evenings preparing the workshop. I have worked with the group many times before so I know their capabilities and they are usually good at participating and working hard and usually we have a lot of fun choreographing a number. I know they like to try new things and like “street” style so I made the number quite cheesy 70’s funky with an urban/street feel to it. I really liked it and thought they’d rise to the challenge and enjoy it too.   

No problems I thought till I met the boy who was playing the Tin Man. This is someone who is 20 years old and has been doing musical theatre with various theatre groups since he was 11 years old and is a major player of principal parts for the company. I’ve never encountered him before at one of my workshops.

His behaviour towards me from the beginning of the evening was disrespectful and very rude and he made it obvious he had no intentions of ever trying to join in the workshop whatsoever. He didn’t join in my warm up, just disappeared from the room. I suppose this on reflection should have set alarm bells ringing but I didn’t really think it was anything out of the ordinary at the time. A lot of boys usually try to get out of doing the warm up.

I had only started the first 4 bars of the number, he stood in the middle of the room, arms folded, saying, “I’m not doing that it’s stupid”. He wouldn’t make eye contact with me when I tried to speak to him about it and walked off to the back of the room, sat with his back to me, hands over his ears and read his script. When I approached him or asked him to take his place in the piece he ignored me and just left the room.

The tension in the room was unnerving and uncomfortable, everyone was looking around unsure what to say or do and how to deal with the situation and, I think, wondering how I was going to deal with it. Others tried to encourage him to participate but he just refused saying it made him look stupid. His attitude was aggressive and confrontational as if he were challenging me.


I explained the characterisation of the Wizard of Oz to the group that it is fun and energetic and the characters are fantasy, only Dorothy is a real person, and so they could all let their hair down and have fun with the piece, after all it was going into panto. To the main characters I explained that if they had a problem or were struggling with any of the choreography it would look perfectly acceptable if they characterised it as the Scarecrow, Lion or Tin Man. For example: I explained it would be ok for the Tin Man to look stiff and awkward so long as he took part in the piece and got the basic direction of the movement and I would go over the moves slowly with him in the break. I explained I would be appointing a dance captain who would rehearse it with them each week and then I’d come nearer the performance date to re look at it and polish. I thought if I explained this it would connect with him, make him more relaxed and encourage him to join in. He never even made eye contact with me while I spoke, he looked at the floor arms folded and then walked off muttering it was stupid.

He waited for me to re start the rehearsal again and disappeared from the room. When he reappeared I suggested he might like to sit and watch the routine first so he could get a feel for it and then try it later, he just looked at the floor and the next I knew he’d disappeared again.   

This was making me feel really angry and frustrated and quite upset. I hate rudeness.
Like Stephie I am quite petite, only 5ft 3ins and light weight so I wondered if he felt he could intimidate me and belittle me, especially as I am also younger than he is. I also felt I didn’t have the authority to actually do anything about his behaviour but it was unnerving everybody and spoiling the enjoyment of the rehearsal. I’ve also got very little experience of dealing with such a situation and I wondered if he’d sensed that. I wasn’t sure I had the confidence to deal with his reaction if I challenged his behaviour. I wasn’t sure what he’d do.

I tried to think if I’d ever witnessed this situation before and how one of my tutors might have dealt with it, but at Bird everyone was there because they have a passion for dance and musical theatre and want to be there so bad behaviour to a tutor was just a no go and the classes I go to these days as a professional dancer we’re all paying to be there to keep up our technique, fitness and stamina so it’s not an issue there either.

 I decided to ignore the behaviour and carry on with the rehearsal as planned. I thought I would speak to the artistic director afterwards as the Tin Man is supposed to be a central character in the number according to the script and I had placed him central with Dorothy, the Scarecrow and Lion and if he wasn’t going to be included the whole number would have to be re thought and spaced. I couldn’t myself see how the number worked with one of the central characters missing but this would be the artistic director’s decision. The Tin Man obviously had some issues but I just could not understand his rudeness and bad manners and however I tried to engage with him he wouldn’t respond to me. I also didn’t have time to waste on him when the rest of the cast were there. One of the cast said to me, “he’s always like this if he doesn’t want to do something he just won’t”. That wound me up even more. I’ve always usually been able to build up a rapport with dance students and a mutual respect but this boy was beyond my capabilities to communicate with. I felt he had a strong resentment towards me.

However I carried on and choreographed the number and was really pleased with the efforts of the others and how it was shaping up. The Tin Man kept appearing here and there to make derogatory comments about the choreography which always involved the word “stupid”, a look of total disgust in my direction and then a quick exit from the room. I’ve never had someone be so disrespectful at any other class or workshop I’ve taken and I’ve never actually witnessed such bad behaviour at any class I’ve attended. He really was starting to get to me.

After the 2 hours I asked the artistic director to come and watch to see what he thought. He really liked the piece, it obviously needed lots more rehearsal but the basics were in place and looked good.

So I said “right let’s put an ending position on the piece. Where are my four principal players for the centre”.The artistic director said “Oh, the Tin Man has left and gone home. He doesn’t do dance”

At this point I called the Tin Man a name under my breath but obviously audible enough for the artistic director to hear and the other principal players. I knew as soon as I’d said it the mistake I’d made but I was so frustrated and annoyed I could‘ve screamed  - it was just a human reaction, before I could engage my brain I’d said it. I didn’t need to reflect on my actions it was instant “reflection – in – action”, I’d let him get to me and lost my professionalism for a split second after 2 hours of rudeness and bad manners and I was really angry at myself and embarrassed because he’d won and ground me down. That was no excuse. I should’ve waited till I got in the car and screamed and shouted my frustrations then.

The reaction in the room was also immediate; it was like a Mexican wave that I’d started with my one flippant comment which carried on all around the room.
One card starts to rock and it’s only moments before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. Everyone’s emotions and frustrations boiled over and the artistic director had to deal with a barrage of obvious pent up feelings that had surfaced following my remark. I immediately apologised to everyone in the room and explained I have never had to deal with such rudeness before, I was so sorry I reacted to it and I felt very embarrassed by my behaviour. However it had given the rest of the cast an opening to raise and discuss issues with the artistic director they must have felt strongly about for weeks and weeks. That still did not exonerate my behaviour.

I discussed the event with the artistic director when everyone had left and explained I would never expect to have to deal with such behaviour again and that I expect a certain level of behaviour and respect from everyone when taking the group, as everyone should have mutual respect for each other, and me for them. Apparently this boy does have attention issues and this type of behaviour is the normal pattern for him if he is asked to do anything outside of his comfort zone. Movement and Dance being the top of his “uncomfortable zone”. He is dyslexic and therefore says he has trouble learning and retaining things quickly and he had told the director before he left that my choreography was making him look and feel stupid. I said I should have been pre warned of this before the rehearsal began so I could have prepared myself and decide how to deal with his behaviour. I also decided that despite my young age and inexperience I need to take control at the outset and not let a situation develop. Even though I thought I was dealing with it by ignoring it I obviously wasn’t as I did eventually react which had a knock on effect to the whole group and it gave him the wrong impression as it gave him the message his behaviour was acceptable. I think on reflection that it was my responsibility as leader of the workshop to control it and deal with any issues as they happened and not presume someone else would pick up on them later.

The behavioural monitoring system that is used in Stephie’s school sounds a good way of ensuring all the teachers are aware of possible incidences and “trouble spots”. I don’t think this could work in a theatre group environment but I think the artistic director should take responsibility for informing outsiders who come to take classes, workshops, rehearsals of any known problems or individuals who may have issues. I also think he should not let any member of the company continually disrupt the group with perpetual bad manners and have a code of conduct that he expects from all members of the company. It’s like ripples on a pond they start out so small and insignificant but end up out of control and I think this is what has happened with this particular individual.

I agree with Stephie that reflecting on the events of that evening in my journal helped me, firstly get it all off my chest and by writing it down it had a sort of cleansing effect. Most importantly I was able to identify the issues, my thoughts and feelings and come up with a plan for how I would deal with a similar situation next time if it arose again.

I looked at the events from the perspective of the Tin Man, how he must have loathed my enthusiasm and energy for the choreography. How he felt threatened because of his insecurities when faced with something he’s not comfortable with and his resentment of me because I do the thing he most hates – dance. But like Stephie whichever way I reflected I could not condone his rudeness and bad manners. However he was feeling could have been resolved through talking about it and discussing ways to get around his problems and I could have dealt with the situation better had I been pre-warned.

 Unlike Stephie I went to a state school and so I have witnessed kids in school like she describes in her blog and as she says these kids are normally in a minority. I was always taught there is no excuse for bad manners and we should all give each other equal respect as human beings and I feel very strongly about Anti Social Behaviour when and wherever it occurs and how it should be tackled not only in schools but everywhere. Most bad behaviour comes from a need to get attention and when a person doesn’t get attention any attention will do even if that’s bad attention.

I think Stephie’s description of a “healthy fear” of her tutors is perhaps not fear but more “respect” for their position of authority. I too knew teachers at my school and certainly my dance teacher, Miss Julie, whom no one would have misbehaved like that in their class. I don’t think this is fear as they all were nice people and didn’t reign with a hand of iron and terror you just “knew” and respected their position.

 I think Stephie’s feelings of anger and frustration are only normal and are quite right for her to feel. None of us are infallible, we’re only human and we all make mistakes and have our own feelings which are going to have a breaking point.  It’s how we decide to move on from that bad experience and learn from it that matters. By analysing and discussing our experiences we can become better professionals.  

 I reflected on my particular experience for several days because it had such an impact on me but I have learned a lot from the experience and I think I would handle the same situation much more effectively next time. I have made myself a strategy to follow if I’m faced with a bad behaved person again and I think I would be aware of a developing situation much quicker. I need to be more assertive in my role leading the group in a session and stamp my authority early on to make sure all participants know my boundaries on behaviour. I have always been taught and believe respect does not come with a position, you have to earn it and I think by making sure your participants understand you, you can start to earn that respect.

I don’t think, as is quite widely believed by these students with behavioural problems, that teachers or anyone for that matter should have to put up with that kind of behaviour. I think systems can be put in place to try and support the teacher and to ensure they have the correct knowledge to be prepared and deal with a situation when it arises. I also think we should have the courage as individuals to be prepared to let others know the standards we expect. Of course there is always going to be “naughty” kids they’ve been around forever but at least we may not struggle to deal with them if we continuously learn from each experience we encounter along the way. This knowledge and understanding of ourselves will be essential as such as myself and Stephie have a long way to go in our careers and we have not yet experienced all the “bad days” – there’s definitely going to be many more to come!!!

References:

Reflective practices - A Reader compiled by Adesola Akinleye (2010)

S Montgomery - Reflective Journal Blog (2010) -

http://stephiemonty.blogspot.com/2010/10/reflective-journal.html