URGENT - Calling all Module 2 Students

Hello,

After reading the handbook I thought that it would be a good idea if some Module 2 students based in London were happy to meet somewhere for a group conversation and confrontation, and to give each other advice on the "Finding a Focus" section of the handbook.

As it says in the handbook itself it would be really helpful and advantageous if we could share each other's ideas to find what parts of our learning need deeper focus.

If there are people who would like to participate to this but aren't based in London, we could set a Skype video-call instead.

I am open to any type of suggestions, and I am also happy to make my house available for the meeting if people are happy to come to Ealing.

Please comment below if you are up for it!

Best,
Selene

Twilight Skype Session - Summary & Thoughts

Yesterday several things were discussed during the Skype session, among others:

- When travelling it seems much harder to keep a log of all the things that happen during the day, perhaps you discover lots of interesting stimuli that could be food for thoughts but by the end of the journey, you forgot most of them. How do other people manage to remember and analyse all the interesting experiences that happen when travelling?

It has been said that the best solution is to keep a DAILY log. I know that when travelling we are much busier, and feel overwhelmed with all the new information, but if we wait too long, it's likely that we forget some precious information. If you don't want to spend too long on it because you want to commit all your time to live the experience, vocal recordings are a great compromise as they're fast and efficient!


- How are people coping with module 2?

In the handout, there are no tasks that can help you test your knowledge on the Readers, so it's been said that creating maps and diagrams can help you to understand what is clear, and what needs further research. Also, when reading the handout more than once, other thoughts and ideas might come to your head, and you can add those to your maps, while at the same time some of your previous concerns may find an answer after you read the handout more carefully.


- Teachers: Do you create a lesson plan for every class you teach or do you find yourself improvising now and then? Also, do you anticipate to the students what is about to come during the lesson or do you just let them explore and find out?

We concluded with the idea that there is no clear answer to this, it very much depends on the subject, the students' age group, and its dynamic. Having a lesson plan is always good as it is more professional, and aims/goals can be more specific. It is also true, though, that we all found ourselves improvising a lesson for one reason or another, and the important thing is not to panic, but to still deliver your tasks with confidence which I am sure comes with time and experience.

Anticipating what is about to come during a class depends on the aim of the lesson itself. If your main goal is to let them explore or discover (e.g. an Improvisation class), perhaps it is better not to anticipate what will come next, and let them be "in the moment". Instead, if for example your aim is to teach your students technical exercises, and you want them to understand, learn, and remember all of them (e.g. Ballet class), then maybe it is better to anticipate what exercises you will be covering during that class, what are their main elements/features, and why it is important for them to learn and remember them.

Thoughts for Module 2

It's incredible to see how fast time goes. I remember the first week of BAPP as if it was yesterday. I felt so lost at first reading other people's blogs and not having a clue on how to start my own.

Module one has helped me particularly in improving the quality of my critical thinking process.
My networking hasn't been great and that is my personal challenge for Module 2.

Really interesting posts have been uploaded during these last few days. Especially Arghierenia's "Keeping a reflective journal" has been particularly inspiring as I never thought of keeping a journal through voice recordings which instead can be particularly handy where there is limited time available.

I have printed the new handbook and I am ready to start this new module!
I will keep you posted x

PS: After 5 months I finally understood how to change the theme and layout for my blog! (yes, this is how bad I am with technology!)

WORK WORK WORK !!

These last three weeks have probably been the busiest of the entire year.
 I am sorry I couldn't dedicate as much time to my blog as I should have, but on the other side I feel so happy!

I have been teaching in different schools and companies for about a year now, and three weeks ago the manager of one of the companies I work for has offered me the position of head of drama!! It's been such an emotional day for me, really overwhelming (In a good way).
I remember coming to London when I was 18. I had nothing here. I barely knew how to say "My name is..." and "How are you". I had no experience, no friends, no family, no nothing; and now just four years later everything has changed and keeps changing.
My working hours and duties have now doubled, and I needed time to get settled into this new role.

As if this wasn't enough good news, just a few days later I got an email from the National Youth Theatre (where I am a member) saying that I was among the six people chosen to sing for the big fundraising event they were preparing in the Café the Paris!
There were several hours of rehearsals as it was going to be a crucial night and expectations were very high from us. On the night there were celebrities such as Michael Wilson (producer of the James Bond Films), Bruce Dickinson (Lead singer of the Iron Maiden), Matt Smith (Actor) and so on.

I have had an intense three weeks full of excitement, fear, adrenaline, and joy.
My next step is to finish the tasks due for the PP module 1 ASAP as now I feel I am a bit behind.

I will keep you updated! x

TASK 1B Thoughts on Reader 1

Web 2.0 is a term I never heard before and to make sure everybody knows what I am talking about I will give you a concise definition of this term by quoting p21 of Reader 1: “Web 2.0 refers to a second-generation of web-based communities, and it provides the opportunity for the reader and creator to interact and more importantly, for reader to become creator.”.

Whilst reading this chapter my head was bursting with a variety of different thoughts and feelings.

I’d like to start with one particular word I came across during the reading that made me enter into a cycle of infinite thoughts: “INTERACT”.

In particular, I want to share with you this sentence I came across:

 “Web 2.0 advocates that through making participation cheap, easy and quick people are more able to get involved in the process of collaboration, sharing and interaction”

I have to admit that after reading this I felt pretty frustrated.

It seemed to me that this definition was meant to give a high and positive connotation to the term Web 2.0, but actually to me it didn’t.

It just reminded me of the huge amount of negativity, envy and hate that there is out there.

When participation and interaction wasn’t that “cheap, easy and quick”, when people actually needed to have the guts to say their thoughts face to face without hiding behind the comfort of their desktop, when your ideas and thoughts after being said were irreversible because there was no such thing as a delete button, people used to think 10 times harder before sharing their opinions out there because consequences were much stronger as interaction was REAL and not virtual.

Instead of “The democratization of the web” as defined by Reader 1, Web 2.0 in my opinion is the “anarchization” of the web as there are almost no rules out there. Everybody feels like they have the right to comment and say whatever they want just because they are entitled to have an “opinion” regardless of the impact those opinions have on other people’s feelings.

I also disagree with this statement found on the chapter: “If you are rude or inconsiderable, the platform works to shut you down.” What? When? Where? Please do let me know. It’s scary the amount of comments/videos I have reported on Facebook for being incredibly violent, racist, sexist, etc. and the answer I’ve received it’s been that the comment/video meets their community standards… how does the video of a screaming kitten being burned alive meets their community standards?? and people commenting under the video with jokes about it? How is that even okay?! It wasn’t even my choice to watch such video, but now videos on Facebook start alone when they come on your wall without giving you the chance to choose.

Please don’t get me wrong. I do not condemn the idea behind the creation of Web 2.0 as UTOPICALLY it’s a superb invention that has infinite positive connotations attached to it, but I condemn the wrong use people are giving to it.

Google for example it’s the fastest and most efficient search engine ever created. Every answer is just one click away, and I’d feel lost without it, but there is a negative side on this too. We are a generation that does not sweat for things. Answers are all there, one second away. That makes it much harder to memorize new information. For example, when there was no internet and you wanted to search the meaning of a word there was a whole process that you had to go through. First you needed a vocabulary, so if you were at work or in the middle of the street, you couldn’t get the answer straight away but you had to remember about the word or write it down somewhere to search it once you were home. That’s already an extra process that nowadays we do not do. Writing a word by hand, the shape of each letter (that’s why typing does NOT count as writing) you are utilizing a certain part of the brain that will allow you to remember that word more easily. Once you are home, and have the time to have a look in the vocabulary you’ve already thought about that word at least 3 times in a day! Nowadays we have a doubt, we look it up on Google one second later, and in probably less than 30 minutes the notion is gone. Of course there are some exceptions, but it works like that for the 90% of things we look up on internet.

We are also more impatient. Being used to having everything immediately we get easily stressed when waiting for things, even if it’s just few minutes. If you disagree think about that time your internet connection was not great and the web page took about a minute instead of 3 to 5 seconds to upload… wasn’t that making you feel stressed and nervous? And yet it was just 1 minute!

From a professional point of view Web 2.0 makes the life easier under many circumstances e.g. uploading self-tapes, sending CVs, getting in touch with directors, or applying for jobs but again I see some negative sides about it. Web 2.0 makes people more vulnerable. Back at the time where internet did not exist the only critics/reviews you had as a performer were from the press or word of mouth. Nowadays EVERYBODY can review anything they want. Being the Arts such a subjective industry no matter how good you are there will always be people who don’t like what you do, and they’ll make sure you know that in the best way they prefer. Yes, press can give negative reviews too, but they are professionals and hopefully able to give a negative comment without making it against an individual as a person, but just against the performer/performance.

Another negative aspect is that being so easy to apply for a job nowadays, there is far more competition out there. That means that you need to work much harder to get the job, and having such a vast demand the job requirements are getting stricter and stricter to narrow down the amount of people who will be taken under consideration. That means that you always have to specialize in more and more detailed and varied things, learn new skills, and have great experience.

In conclusion as you have probably already understood I am quite against Web 2.0 as although it has offered lots of innovation it has taken lots away too. I have recently noticed that internet is not an option anymore. You are forced to work with it. Few months ago I wanted to close all of my accounts (Facebook, Twitter etc) trying to live more in contact with nature and taking care of my face to face relationships, but it was impossible. I am forced to use it as it is a requirement now. Just as an example without writing this blog on the internet, and doing the Skype calls together I wouldn’t get my degree no matter how good, qualified or committed I was for this course, I would have failed because I was missing a vital part of it. It is not a hobby or just an entertainment anymore, it is a basic part in our daily lives and this actually scares me. It makes me feel as if I am not actually free of choosing how to conduct my life. Leaving the internet for then having no job, career, nor friends because most dynamics/events happen virtually is not really an option is it.

It’s also true that humans tend to ask for what they don’t have. Maybe if I could go back in time and live with no internet I would regret not having the Web 2.0… who knows?

Lastly I'd like to thank Matt and Jennifer in particular for writing such great blogs as they gave me lots of interesting stimulus to write on this task! 

Thoughts of the day!

Introduction to BA PP and Skype Call

Hello Everybody,

My name is Selene Bueno, and I am really pleased to be part of this new life project together!
I have joined the course slightly later than the others so I lost the induction week, and for that reason I have been feeling a bit lost for a bit.

I want to start this course by being completely honest with you all, and telling you that the reason why I have actually taken so long to write my first post on this blog is because I was absolutely frightened! This is mainly because I didn't know how to start. I was worried of making grammatical mistakes (being English not my native language), and maybe not saying things that were interesting enough; but I've come to the conclusion that it's better to try and learn than to just take time... as my drama teacher used to say < Strong and wrong rather than right and "shite"!>.

I never had a blog before, I had a read through some of yours guys and they look amazing with lots of photos, illustrations, and beautiful colours! I wanted to thank Adesola for patiently helping me to comprehend the basic features of how to write and read blogs, but I still need to understand this fully so please be patient with me and hopefully I will be able to be as good as you all soon.

I had my first group Skype call on the 3rd of October, and it was great!
I left the conversation with lots of new interesting points of reflection. It was fascinating how we were giving for granted some concepts during the discussion, and then when Adesola gave as such a new and unexpected stimulus the whole conversation shifted to a whole deeper level.
We started discussing the idea of "talent" and "perfection", and how actually hard it is to give a precise definition for them.
We also analyzed those words/concepts under different contexts (e.g. from an actor/dancer's point of view, and from a teacher's point of view), and it made me realize how really different skills are involved for different roles.

I have a whole new idea now on the "critical thinking" process, and it definitely sounds clearer and more stimulating.

Looking forward for the next Skype call on Monday!