Odd drama times
It has been a lot of fun for me over the past
few months to write these blogs. It gives me an excellent chance to
document my thoughts as well as get some general perspective about
what life is like at university. The only issue with this at
the moment is the fact that for 3 weeks now, I haven’t really been
in the university. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing stuff
for my PGCE course.
Let’s talk about the most interesting part
first. For the Primary PGCE course at Wolverhampton we get given a
week to spend time in an Alternative Educational Setting (AES).
This is where we can spend a week somewhere, with children that are
not in a primary classroom where we can experience working with
children from a different perspective. Some people went to
specialised schools for children with disabilities; others went to
high schools to work with children of a different age. I went to
work with a company called Artburst (http://www.artburst.co.uk/) which
devote their time to running creative workshops for children,
focusing on drama and art. I was an assistant on a weeklong
workshop, working with around fourteen children ranged from nine to
twelve. We helped the kids write, design costumes and set and
perform their own show. We heavily guided them through most of the
process but by the end of it all, it was their own work. We put on
a production of “The Dragon’s pearl” (full story here: www.theserenedragon.net/Tales/china-xiaosheng.html).
The children would write down the names of the roles they wanted
and when they were assigned them, they made their own costumes and
help design and create the set. It was a fantastic week; I
personally had a lot of fun and gained experience about how to run
these types of workshops.
The problem that occurred with my AES
placement is that it had to take place during half term as this is
when the workshop was run. If I worked for Artburst during the week
the university had set aside for us (this week), then I would have
spent most of it in an office doing paper work (not the most valued
experience of working with children). I was happy to do my week
during half term and so was the university. The slight blip for me
was that I also had two assignments to do that week as well as take
part in the workshop. I would drive and hour and half into London
(that’s right, London!) every day for 9am, finish around 3, then
drive and hour and half back to then spend the evening doing
assignments. It was an incredibly tiring week, but well worth it in
the end for me. The AES is an excellent idea and I hope that other
students this week have got as much out of it as I did.
Speaking of this week, what have I been up to
if I haven’t been on my AES? Well there was this trip to Barbados
that I...only joking! I have been doing more assignments!! Joy! SO
I finally struggle to complete two assignments whilst I am on my
AES week and I get rewarded with more assignments! But, I hear you
shouting out; don’t I have some free time as I have already done my
AES? That would be correct if I hadn’t already agreed to do some
free lance work for my old job. So I have spent most of this week
looking after children in an after school club. Not that it hasn’t
been nice to earn a little bit more cash to drip into the ocean of
my over whelming debt (that may be going over the top but it
certainly feels that way), but I have actually spent little time
this week working on my assignments. True, this week is our science
essay which I could certainly put down as one of my favourite
subjects, but I also wanted to get a heads start on my Masters
essay. Oh well!
All in all, it’s been a fun three weeks and
hopefully I will be back sooner to talk about how the lectures have
changed since we enter the final few weeks of teaching! Also
shouldn’t write again until I have finished my science
essay....
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