The first week back after Christmas is always a shock to the system – but this year the shock has been tinged with uncertainty in light of the upcoming regional merger. My main concern is to make sure my students are not ill affected by the whole thing and to put all of my energies into delivering good quality lessons which engage and empower.
That said, This week I have had both good and bad experiences:
On Weds Ian from Napier came to talk about auditions with the HNC/D group. I was disappointed at the quality of work the students shared as I had run a very similar session giving similar feedback and input into their work before Christmas – only to find they have not applied it. It’s frustrating because learners regard a new facilitator with more weight than that which they work with on a daily basis… why is this? it is not a lack of respect, as I have an excellent rapport with most learners, but maybe familiarity affects the amount they take from what you give them? I don’t know.. and am afraid to ask!!!
The level 5s have been working on blocking ‘Multiplex’ this week and over half were absent 😦 I decided to replace absentees with Barbie/Ken dolls, which seemed to go down quite well with those that attended the rehearsals. I am concerned about the level of attendance in this group though, bearing in mind we need to prepare for an external exam. I am assured that the reasons for absence are personal or financial rather than course related.
The Level 6 group have had a productive week but are feeling the pressure with having so many pieces to learn. We have made good headway today with structuring a response to a textual analysis question and practical assessment pieces. A colleague spent an hour covering essay structure and buzz words relevant to the text and I followed this up with the Director’s perspective – I tried to vary the session by asking them to generate group responses to questions and then commenting on each other – but the group struggle with long periods of written or static work.
In the afternoon we did vocal development work including diaphragmatic breathing, projection and articulation, posture and alignment followed by individual group work with Antigone. Generally I need the group to ‘perform’ and have set homework to analyse the extract in detail in an attempt to help them get to grips with it.
Generally a positive week with lots achieved.
19hrsandcounting 