The Artefact
Planning is underway for my Artefact, at the moment I am just finishing the information I will be putting into the brochure which will demonstrate the importance of assessments why they are conducted and the benefits and disadvantages.
My target audience is Students and Parents, it is a small guild (information brochure) into the world of assessments and is designed to help Students and Parents through assessments.
The reason why I decided to do an information pack (assessment brochure) was because of previous experiences, I found that whilst being a student and in training assessments were a huge part of my life but I didn't understand very much about them so I didn't take them as serious as I would have liked to if I had of know the importance, so this brochure will help students in the position I was to guild them and provide more information about assessments giving them (hopefully) a more positive view and will allow parent to be apart of the process too.

Surveys

Off to Queens school to do my surveys today I'm a little nervous but more excited for how the students will react wish me luck.

Different opinions rather then one solution.

Last weeks campus session was a lot different to the previous sessions as we were looking at the inquiry from other peoples points of view and how other people's views make a subject a bit more exciting and creates many different avenues to study, like new data selections new evidence to support findings and they always say there's always two sides to every story.

For example my inquiry is about Understanding the different approaches and purposes underlining Dance Assessments undertaken in different types of Dance Institutions and how assessments benefit not just the students and teachers but also the students parents because they will want to know how the child/young adult is doing but I would like to hear from anyone who has a different opinion about assessments to get a feel for both sides of the inquiry.

Last campus session got me focussing on my targets for this module and how I am going to improve on my out look of the inquiry I am rather happy with the inquiry I have chosen but I now have to get deeper into the subject because at the moment I am just scratching the surface, I feel that the word that best describes my future work is precision without this I wont be able to achieve the great knowledge and evidence needed.
I have also created a timeline for myself of targets for each week and its working really well for me I now have a structure to cling to and the knowledge of time scales in which to complete it in.

When I first realised to amount of work that is needed for this module I kinda freaked out but reading through the module handbook and that first campus session I realised its not too bad after all still going to be hard though.

I am now off to the second campus session :)

Oh and Happy Halloween!!

Critical Reflection Portfolio

Critical Reflection Portfolio.

My line of inquiry is about the Different Cultures of Assessments.

I have created a Professional Inquiry plan Appendix A talking about my line of inquiry, why it is important, why I choose to investigate this inquiry, what ethical considerations I will be conducted and how they are implemented etc.

During my time looking into this inquiry i have managed to do a test observation on two different Schools one being Westfield Community Technology College and the other The Urdang Academy London which was a very beneficial experience, I have documented my findings in Appendix B.

On my blog I have discussed about the observation I attended at Urdang Appendix C

I have also produced a questionnaire for the students and teachers to fill out when I start the Inquiry after my Ethical approval happens in June 2012 see Appendix D and Appendix E.

Also my reward title Appendix F.

Proposed Award Title and Rationale

Tiffany Newson

Proposed Award Title and Rationale

I would like my awards title to be BA Hons Professional Practice in Performing Arts. This is because I have had a passion for Performing Arts since a young age and as I have grown my passion has too. I would like to share my experiences and knowledge with the future generation of Performers. This title will be useful for my future career ambitions as a performer and as a teacher.  

Returning to Urdang

For my inquiry I have chosen to base my studies around The Culture of Assessments.

I have been very privileged to have been allowed to attend classes at Secondary State School Westfield Community Technology College and been able to observe the audition process at The Urdang Academy which I had today and will tell your little about my findings.

The audition process at The Urdang Academy seemed at the start of the day (10am) very exciting but so nerve racking.
As the day went on everyone started to relax and really enjoy the auditions (2pm) time flew by so fast that the next time I looked at the clock it was (5pm) and all the auditions had finished I had a really exciting day so exciting that I almost fell asleep on the train with exhaustion.

It is fantastic to observe future performers and know exactly how they feel and the effort they put into every move.  Of what I have been observing mostly all of the auditionee's are dedicated and have the potential to be great.

I have managed to see auditioning in a new light to see what the auditioning panel see is great for a performer you can see how you may be able to improve myself and others.

Whilst observing I noticed that the group from the first ballet session was a lot more focused then the group that had acting first because the assessments in acting seem to be a lot more relaxed then ballet assessments so if I was to be doing my own assessments then I would most defiantly start with Ballet.

The audition process at The Urdang Academy is so different to the assessments that state schools do, I think this is because at Urdang they really want to be in the school and at state schools it is compusary to do assessments, for progress reports.

Ethical consideration is essential in this industry it is vital you show respect and motivation towards the panel and teachers that could be the difference between getting a place or not.

The way you present yourself is very important to others as first impressions can be judged right from the moment you walk through the door.

During my time observing at Urdang I have found that they really help the auditionee's get prepared for the tasks they that they were about to face for example a warm up session for them before they are assessed on their singing.

Whilst training a lot of focus and energy needs to be brought into the mix it is not all about pure talent it is all about hard work and dedication to the Arts.