Final Reflective Log from COBC Trainee Lecturer Fliss

Professional behaviour that is ethical in teaching practice comes from understanding the importance of the position a teacher holds regarding the welfare, safeguarding, equality and diversity of their student body and individual students within their care. This includes the responsibility teachers have towards students in their classrooms and also outside the college where the teacher is still responsible and liable to their own and their students’ actions. If someone jeopardises this responsibility in any major way in the above areas, they are no longer being ethical and they are at risk of losing their professionalism either for a short time (until they mend the grievance or neglect) or possibly for a long period of time, potentially irretrievable, should the mistake or long-time disregard for ethical codes and policies in teaching occur. For example, should a teacher mishandle a disruptive students’ attitude (either by raising their voice/losing their own temper/belittling the student in front of their peers) the teacher is not being professional and especially if the teacher hones in on the student rather than the student’s attitude, they are not being ethically minded. The students bad behaviour is lost in the milieu of the teacher becoming the non-professional in their teaching capacity, which unfortunately, is punished more severely than a poorly behaving student. The teacher must apologise, either in front of the class in which they embarrassed the student or in front of a board of the teachers’ peers. In either situation, the student is often allowed to think that their behaviour has meant that a teacher, a professional in both the student’s and the teacher’s subject field, has been embarrassed in front of colleagues. The student controls the Master. This tends to be a very negative look at the importance of ethics, and a breach in professionalism is so easy to happen as humans make daily life mistakes. However, there are positive needs for ethics and professionalism that protects not only the rights of our learners but also the teaching body in an establishment. By using equality and diversity in our teaching practice, we value the individual people that come to our colleges. Often in an FE setting, it is a second chance for some who found schooling not applicable to their needs as a person. We may value our learners for their own style and sense of self, and we can develop both further within their time at College through studies, enrichment programs and giving them qualities and skills in a hidden curriculum; confidence, sense of worth, group skills, leadership skills, friendship, working to deadlines, time management, autonomy and achievement are some of the crucial skills that students may achieve in their time spent at college. Welfare and Safeguarding are a part of the currently-changing ECM (Every Child Matters) policy and are two imperative areas that professional teachers must strive to maintain with their learners (as learners are responsible for their own safety too). Self-worth is a skill in this area too but only informs a small section of the necessity for caring for the students in college hours and outside of them. For example, at City of Bath College, as with most if not all colleges, regular Tutorials are held with students to check their learning progress, goals and ways to achieve them but there is also a pastoral element, where the teacher is able to speak to the student on troubling matters at home, coping with work, relationships, changes and growing up. Combinations of the academic and the pastoral provide an holistic teaching of the learner and teachers should be trained and up-skilled in these areas to ensure that they are the best they can be to maintain a high professional and ethical standard in this role.

As part of this, teachers are not always trained in these areas and so become reliant on other teachers. Rather than seeing it as a negative thing, more input should be made by colleges to share knowledge resources and encourage to help one another. Some colleges e.g. New College, Swindon, still have the role of Advanced Practitioners who specifically hold CPD days and training sessions to help colleagues develop and liaise over student and professional matters. Personally, I have been able to access many resources and teaching tools from colleagues at City of Bath College. For example, there was recently a teacher resources exchange where a booty-pack was given out (inside there was Bloom’s Taxonomy, playing cards, questions, coloured sticks, dice and notebooks) in exchange for an teaching idea that worked well in the classroom that got added to a database for other teachers to consider using. I put down using post-it notes (please see previous entries to understand my fascination with them). I believe that had I not been a training lecturer, I would still have been welcomed and supported in my teaching at COBC and I feel that their excellent professionalism has helped me grow and improve as a teacher, and given me a few tricks on how to cope when it does not go so well.

As part of the responsibilities in teaching, there often comes a point where a teacher must challenge discrimination. This, unfortunately, can come from their own point of view as much as from someone else’s. This year, I have strived to challenge discrimination where I have seen it in my classrooms, demonstrated in an explicit way, by asking questions, discovering from others why it should not be done, ways to remedy it and change opinions. This was not always the case; very early on in my teaching at COBC, I lead a class on differences in people and individuality and let a student slate a bus driver by how they chose to dress, not equipped at that time with powers to deal with her opinions in a constructive way, deconstructing her opinions to see from where they had come. I have had more experience over the year and now feel more confident in firing questions (often aiming to bamboozle students who continue to barrage with negative comments) but striving to create a discussion and come up with a more moral and ethical way to handle ignorance and mis-understanding.

During my teaching career, I hope to further develop the ‘teaching toolbox’ that I have created for myself and shared with others, and I aim to continue improving as a teacher to become a brilliant teacher. My heroes are brilliant teachers in some capacity and I want to be that much of a positive influence on other people. My mother has students coming up to her all the time, claiming their time as Sanford-ised students and I hope to have the same from mine in coming years.

And so, I sign off, after a year of sporadic blogging. I will pick you all up again once I am an employed teacher again.

Farewell,

Fliss x

Hunting the jewel job in the murderous mission market

From Easter I have been on the hunt for a job in Performing Arts. It was suggested to me that I should sign up to job agency recruiters (including Reed and Hays) and to FE Jobs (online) both of which I have found some useful information and guidance in seeking roles. I have worked for Hays Recruitment before, when I was seeking employment in the medical secretarial sector prior. Working as temporary staff was rewarding in part, as I was in charge of the hours that I worked and could keep in control of my earnings.

Unfortunately, I found that this arrangement was not very satisfying as I felt I was never a full member of the team I was working with despite honing good working relationships with them and wider community of the hospital. I always planned that future jobs would involve me being a full member of the team and establishment that I lucky to be working with.

Therefore, I am very keen to apply directly to colleges and sixth forms. I am also hoping to provide more areas to teach such as English, Drama Studies, and Functional Skills in Literacy, and perhaps Creative Writing. So far, my PGCE has focussed mainly on Performing Arts and Functional Skills but as part of my CPD, I am hoping to work more on other areas of study in order to teach.

Ultimately, I wish to teach at HE level which will require a Masters level degree. To this end, I am hoping to find employment in a college that already has or is aiming to progress to having BA degrees, either in full or in part, for its students. I hope to gain access and experience in teaching at a higher level so that my experience in teaching broadens. I hope in a few years to begin and complete my Masters in either Drama or English, the decision to be made at a later date. On completion I shall look into teaching at a University.

In order to add to my current knowledge base, I am looking into taking a part time course either Business Studies or Management skills as this is an area in which I am very keep for my personal development. I know that many colleges offer these qualifications for their staff, as they are key skills that they can use in their establishment’s development.

Overall, I am looking for a job in the South West where I may teach in Performing Arts and other subjects alongside continuing my personal skills and development both for my own advancement in my career and for the benefit of the college in which I am teaching.

Here’s hoping something will appear soon!

GMT Research Project and how it transformed my teaching

The Purpose of my GMT Research Project was to explore the relationship between the plans Performing Arts students had when they began their course and how it had changed or adapted by the time they were nearing their course's completion. Below is the introduction and aims of the Research Project 'Next!: A research project into career plans of Performing Arts students with regard to current cuts in both Education and the Arts Industry.' "With current news of Education Cuts and slashes in funding for the Arts under the new Coalition Government, how much are students being supported in their decisions to enter the Performing Arts sector, by either completing their BTEC Level 3 qualification, or being encouraged to extend their knowledge and apply for a degree or a place at a Drama School? This study will explore the career guidance that is available at a Further Education College in the South West of England, from here to be referred to as X College, for the students in the Performing Arts Course. The study will look into the aspirations and achievements of students currently in their first or second year of the BTEC Extended Diploma Level 3 course in Performing Arts. "The BTEC Diploma at Level 3 gives the student the qualification that enables them to apply for University to continue their studies or experience to seek a job in the Performing Arts sector. The BTEC Nationals Qualifications aim ‘to help students develop deep, specialist, practical skills and understanding’ (BTEC 2010) through their modular assessments. X College also includes a comprehensive programme that exists alongside the BTEC programmes that covers the National Minimum Core: students take Level 2 qualifications in Functional skills, covering Literacy, Numeracy and ICT whilst they attend the college. Therefore, the students are equipped with additional skills, outside their chosen specialism, which enables them to seek employment in alternative sectors to Performing Arts. With education fees escalating from September 2011, students may not feel motivated to continue their studies, especially if they already have been given the tools to start them on a career path. This research project is going to look at the popularity of continuing education after college at either University or Drama School, whether the rising fees have affected general consensus about attending higher education institutions and what the final career aspirations are of the Level 3 student body in the Performing Arts department at College X. "The following key aims will be looked at in detail: · Why did the students initially elect to study the BTEC Extended Diploma in Performing Arts? · What do the students wish to do at the culmination of their time at college? · What career guidance is available for students at the college? · Has the recent news in budget cuts for Education and the Arts made any of the students reconsider their options? · Do students still feel as confident about entering the Performing Arts Sector as they were when they first began their studies? "This is a limited enquiry which may mean that not all of the material will be developed in this project alone. In this occurrence, a further enquiry may be necessary to explore the material in greater detail and enquiries into widening student participation. However, this particular study will conclude with some detailed analysis that provides answers to the initial aims and purposes described above. With the cessation of this report, I aim to personally use the findings to benefit my own practice; I wish to encourage my students to explore the many varied access paths into the Performing Arts sector, whilst they are still at college. By doing this, they can discover, and in some examples, sample different career paths that could open up for them, that do not necessarily rely on them being solely an actor, dancer or singer." The beginning of the project was quite difficult to get into as it seemed such a large area to look at and pin down. However, once begun I found it relatively easy to keep myself on track and work with the students at College X to create a limited enquiry into their future career plans. From their responses my personal outlook and projected outcome changed: from firstly seeing where I could help them (and future students) to locate and analyse the potential career paths they may choose at the culmination of their studies, instead I discovered that they knew the available options but did not know how to choose. With prices for education going up and budgets for the Arts going down, students are aware that they can still go into HE and get a degree in Performing Arts but because competition is becoming even worse in an already fierce market, they are beginning to lack the confidence and the motivation to bother applying at all. A BTEC at Level 3 is equivalent to an A Level in the same subject. Students aim for three Distinction grades as do A level students try to achieve three As. No matter how hard students may try and in the world of Performing Arts be exceptionally talented in their craft, there are still few students who will leave with those three prestigious grades. Added to this that they are all required to have honed skills in communication, volunteer work and orienteering skills, the HE market for students immediately out of college is very wide and over-populated compared to the very few places available each year at University. On top of this, my BTEC students are told that their diplomas and their Functional Skills at Level 2 have made them ‘ready’ to begin their careers in Performing Arts. They may feel that with the definite debt and unreliable admission processes, they might try to get a job in a theatre or teaching and choose to start the career ladder at a lower rung. This is surely not a bad thing to do, and hard work and self motivation have often paid dividends in careers and job progression. I just feel that anyone who has put in time to work hard enough to get a good ground base in Performing Arts should be inspired to take it further and continue on their learning journey. All performing arts students are passionate, there is no getting away from it. Sometimes though with financial problems that affect from the individual all the way to being a national if not global worry, that passion can be jaded. In my research, 3 first years who had completed the Level 2 course prior to beginning their Level 3 said that they were unsure about what career path to take when they complete their diploma in 2012. I felt, although this was not confirmed by any of them, that their attitude and change in ideas from when they first started, was in proportion to the exposure of too much performing arts problems and not enough passion. If this project has taught me anything, it has made me abundantly aware that I should never forget or neglect the passion I have for my subject because I should be the teacher that promotes furthering education on behalf of the individual despite what is going on around them. Sometimes this is a rash and ill-considered decision to make and is not right for all. However, I am certain that by being in the right place at the right time can often stem from rash and ill-considered actions and in Performing Arts, that makes stars! Harrison Ford on IMDB (2011) (online) “His father was Irish, his mother Russian-Jewish. He was a lackluster student at Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge Illinois (no athletic star, never above a C average). After dropping out of Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he did some acting and later summer stock, he signed a Hollywood contract with Columbia and later Universal. His roles in movies and TV ("Ironside" (1967), "The Virginian" (1962)) remained secondary and, discouraged, he turned to a career in professional carpentry. He came back big four years later, however, as Bob Falfa in American Graffiti (1973). Four years after that he hit colossal with the role of Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Another four years and Ford was Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Four years later and he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his role as John Book in Witness (1985). All he managed four years after that was his third starring success as Indiana Jones; in fact, many of his earlier successful roles led to sequels as did his more recent portrayal of Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992). Another Golden Globe nomination came his way for the part of Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive (1993). He is clearly a well-established Hollywood superstar.” “[Ford] had no formal training as a carpenter. He borrowed books on carpentry from the library, studied them and then practiced in an empty house before he got good enough at it that it became his primary job before becoming a major Hollywood actor. He found he enjoyed carpentry so much that he kept it as a hobby.” IMDB (2011) Harrison Ford (online) available from: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000148/bio [accessed 1 June 2011]