Task 2d - The Inquiry Task

What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

I have a passion for the teaching of dance and in a whole it is something that I am very enthusiastic about.  I think the main thing that makes me so enthusiastic is seeing students that do not have any dance tuition in any aspect of their life have the chance to learn, choreograph and develop a ‘professional’ routine, similar to those that they see in music videos on the television.  This is similar to my overall drive for working at the school that I currently do (click here for school website).  The school that I work in at the moment has students with very varied backgrounds, a great deal of which do have deprived home lives.  Giving these students a service, within their education, that they would usually have to pay for and seeing how grateful and happy they are to be given the opportunity constantly enthuses me to continue to do what I do.  The second thing that makes me enthusiastic in my current daily practice is seeing the progress that is made by students within my lesson.  The levels of progress made by the most able students really do enthuse me in a certain way, but in my opinion the most enthusing progress that can be made is by the students that do not think they have any dance ability and working with them until they feel like they have achieved and progressed. 

A person that I admire is the subject leader for PE, Laura Cade.  Laura entered teaching in a similar way to me.  Her passions for the job also match mine in most ways.  Laura has strived to build a department which is fully inclusive of all students and one which supports all, taking both the most and least able into account.  Laura is a very support subject leader from the point of view from her staff.  One of her most important aspects is to enthuse her staff on a daily basis, especially if there are circumstances that could bring down the moral among the department.  The reason she sees it as her job to enthuse the staff is because of the students.  Laura wants her staff to all be inspiration to all students and to do this we all need to be in lifted spirits.

What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger?

The thing that makes me angry when I am working in my current professional practice is mainly the staff.  I very rarely get angry or upset by things that the students do due to the fact that there are policies and procedures to be followed in response to these actions rather than have my anger or upset as the response.  One of the main things that makes me angry is when staff do not follow the policies and procedures that are in place to respond to the poor or positive behavior, attitude or work level displayed and presented by the students.  With one case in particular, there was a student that had been misbehaving all day and by the time she got to me should have had incident reports and follow up meetings happen numerous times for her behavior throughout the day.  When the student displayed poor behavior during my lesson, I followed through with all the correct procedures to which the students’ behavior escalated due to the fact that she had been behaving in this way all day and this hadn’t happened.  I think this particular student’s situation could have been dealt with in a far more professional way if the staff body had of all followed the school’s procedures and policies in the correct way.  Somebody that I admire who shares my annoyance with respect to these occurrences is the person who is second in charge of PE called John Bose.  John has taught me that even though it is frustrating, it is better to be the member of staff that is following the protocol than the one who isn’t and to lead by example.

From my experience of working in the industry, the thing that makes me upset and angry about the working conditions is the fact that getting a job is never solely based on the person’s ability.  The majority of jobs that come up also focus on the individual’s look and appearance.  I believe that if an individual is capable of doing a job they should be considered for it, rather than having to look the part before the ability is judged.

What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

There are two things that I really do love in my professional practice, the first of which being the feeling that I get when I take a bow at the end of a performance and the second the feeling that I get at the end of a class.  In both occasions the feeling that I get at the end can be both positive and negative and also can be felt with enthusiasm or felt with gratitude for the end.  In all of these different occurrences it is always a feeling that I love due to the fact that it is always a sense of achievement.  A person I trained along side, but who is also one of my best friends, also shares this feeling of achievement on seeing the close of a class, a show or of any event that she has been a part of.  Amiee Singer is someone that has been able to build a career in the arts.  One of the main things that she has learnt is that she has had to take on jobs that she hasn’t necessarily wanted to do to get to where she is.  She taught me that the best thing about doing a job that you do not necessarily want to do is the sense of pride and achievement at the end of it.  I think I have been able to take on this sense of achievement into any negative experiences in my professional practice and I think this is why I always love the feeling of getting to the end, whether is has been a positive or negative experience.

What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

I think in my current professional practice you are never able to get to the stage where you feel completely as if you understand everything.  I am constantly learning and developing my role.  From carrying out my degree I have begun to reflect even further into my ability and have found that not only are there more areas that I can pick faults in within my practice, I am also able to find ways of finding out the information that is needed to fill these faults.  Somebody at school that I admire for his abilty within the teaching industry is Paul Kean.  He is currently in his Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) year, yet his ability in teaching, his knowledge of education and also his role within the school supperseeds his experience.  He is currently a middle leader and is very determined to reach leadership.  I admire the fact that he puts in 100% effort and always tries to give his best.  He has taught me to never settle for being ‘good enough’ or ‘second best’, he always pushes me to reach my full potential.  Another person that I have found myself looking up to on this degree is Iona Holland.  She clearly has great determination to succeed in this qualification and also has learnt to use and maintain a blog account much faster than me.  She I someone that pushes me to work to my best and her work also inspires me to complete my work to my best ability and to make my page look its best.  Please take a look at her blog by clicking here.