Submissions and new term...

Submissions of work for the January deadline are all received - Thank-you and Well done to all of you!

Adesola and myself will aim to email you with feedback on the modules you have just completed by the end of January, your final grades will be published for you on UniHub towards the end of February.

So before withdrawing entirely from online presence and bury myself in marking(!), I thought some dates for your diaries for the next term may be useful.

Finalist presentations - Monday Jan 19th, Hendon Campus from 9.45am - All encouraged to attend.

Next group Skype for all new and returning students - 
SUNDAY FEB 1st - 11.00 and 17.30 UK time

New term begins on MONDAY FEB 2nd.

In the meantime do take a look at the Module Handbook for your next module on our MAPP DTP page on UniHub.

Helen

Finalist Presentations in January...

You are all warmly invited to attend the

MA Professional Practice, Dance Technique Pedagogy

Finalist Presentations

January 19^th 2015

Grove Dance Theatre (G190)

Middlesex University London

Schedule of the day:

9.30 arrival

9.45-12.00 Morning Presentations  - 

3 finalists presenting their Research Projects, each presentation is approx 30mins with questions, comments, invited afterwards.

12.00-13.00 – Assessors questions/discussion with finalists

13.00-13.30 – Lunch break

1.30-15.00 Afternoon Presentations - 

2 finalists presenting their Research Projects, each presentation is approx 30mins with questions, comments, invited afterwards.

15.00-16.00 – Assessors questions/discussion with finalists

It would be great to see lots of you there supporting your fellow MAPPers and sharing in their research, and would be great to meet some of you in person!

Please confirm attendance via email so that we have an idea of numbers  h.kindred@mdx.ac.uk

Finalists - I have emailed you with more details of the day.

Submission of work for assessment...

As we're nearing the end of this term, some notes on the submission of your work for assessment.

Everyone, whatever module you are one, has the 
submission date of January 5th 2015.

With a last chance to submit any work in draft form next week (Dec 9th) in order for Adesola and myself to get back to you with some feedback before the end of our teaching term (Dec 19th).

Submission of work is via the University Student Portal - UniHub
You will have visited our Programme Page here already to see your Module Handbooks, get the list of Blog addresses, check out your reading lists and other Uni resources.

Once logged in to UniHub, you click on
My Courses 
go to the MA Professional Practice Dance Technique Pedagogy page.
Here you'll find a folder titled Submissions - Jan.  
Within this folder is the Turnitin Assignment Submission box.
You click on this to upload your assignment saved as ONE word document.
Turnitin will not allow you to submit multiple files so all written work, including your cover page, any appendices, bibliography must be saved as one document.
Please save this document as 
YOUR NAME_YOUR MODULE_FINAL ASSESSMENT_DATE.

Submitting via email:
As a back up, or if you have problems with using Turnitin and are not able to submit this way (don't panic) please do send the same document, saved in the same way as an email attachment to both myself and Adesola.

<h.kindred@mdx.ac.uk>
<adesola@dancingstrong.com>

For those of you submitting for Module One, please use Turnitin for your Review of Learning Essay (one document including cover page and bibliography) but for your portfolios the one document rule will be more tricky.  Please email your completed CV, JD, AOLS (with appendices of evidence if possible in electronic form and bibliography for each one) and your Review of Learning essay.  Please also submit your whole portfolio in hard copy.  

If you are local to London and able to submit in person you may always hand your work in via the UniHelp desk in the main reception area of the Sheppard Library at our Hendon Campus.  You will be issued with a receipt of submission here and the work will be passed on to me.  You can also mail your work in (we accept date of posting as your submission date, so you do not need to worry about posting ahead to get to us for the deadline) if doing this please address to:

Helen Kindred, Programme Leader MA Professional Practice Dance Pedagogy
School of Media and Performing Arts
Town Hall Annex (TG55)
Middlesex University London
The Burroughs
Hendon
London
NW4 4BT

Any problems just email me!

Helen

Different journeys...same module

Picking up on themes emerging from your blogs, linked-in discussions and the one-to-one tutorials this week, I wanted to offer some generic support with regard to those of you on Module One.

Module One is all about you situating yourself within the framework of your own learning through reflection on your prior learning experiences.  We ask you to demonstrate this journey of self-reflection and understanding of where you are within your own professional practice by compiling a Portfolio.

Your portfolio is like a scrap book of you through your professional practice.
It includes:

• your annotated CV 
• your (main) Job Description
• your AOLs including illustrations/evidence as appendices (80 credits)
• your Review of Learning reflective essay (10 credits)

The Areas of Learning (AOLs) represent the areas of your professional experiences that have relevance to your current professional practice.  The AOLs offer you a way of demonstrating, through writing within an academic context, the learning that you have undertaken through prior professional experiences.  You present these AOLs (with illustration/evidence) to the university as part of your portfolio in order to demonstrate the level of prior professional experiences you have had as being equivalent to MA level (level 7).  It is through the AOLs that you are claiming academic credit via your prior professional practice for the first 80 credits of your MA.

Different Journeys:

We recognise, and enjoy that you have all had different prior experiences and therefore your portfolios will be as diverse in their content and presentation.  Imagine you are all set the task to bake a cake, you are all given a round tin to bake it in (a frame) but are relying on whatever's in your own cupboards for the ingredients.  You will all bake a cake, but everyone's ingredients will be different, so no two cakes will taste the same.

If you have prior learning experiences already accredited (by another awarding body/organisation) at level 7 (ie: MA credit from another institution, PGCE qualification) you can use this to make a claim directly for that specified level of credit.  As this is credit which has already been assessed and 'passed' to be at level 7 your claiming of it need not be as lengthy as an AOL for prior experience that has not been accredited previously.  It is more of a supportive claim statement which should detail the key  learning experiences of this accredited learning as relevant to your current professional practice (approx 1,000 words) and should be accompanied by the relevant certification for this accreditation (certificate and transcript).

If you have prior learning experiences which have already been accredited/approved by Middlesex University but do not stand directly within a formally recognised level 7 qualification (i.e: Fellowship status through the ISTD, QTS through Schools Direct route rather than PGCE) you can use these to make a claim for that agreed credit through making them the title of one AOL.  This AOL has direct reference to the learning of this prior experience and you use the AOL essay to demonstrate this learning within an academic context, and support with relevant certification/award.

Prior learning which you have identified through your professional experiences but which has not previously been accredited by another institution/organisation you use as the basis of your AOLs (titled as relevant to each area) in order to claim the relevant academic credit that you (and your advisor) feel the experience is equivalent to in academic terms.  You look to identify through these essays/claims/AOLs the prior learning that has been key to your professional practice.

So, you will have different numbers of AOLs at different credit levels depending on your different prior experiences and that's great!

Hopefully that's a little clearer all round?  Do use your Module Handbook (Review of Learning) to support you in the process too, it does outline the process of claiming through AOLs.

Speak at our next group Skype call on Dec 7th (11am or 5.30pm UK time) if not before!

Helen

Transmission Performance Symposium

Middlesex University Dance Dept is hosting a one day symposium on Saturday Dec 13th at the London campus

The works of Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Anna Sokolow, Robert Cohan and Mark Franko will be presented in performance in extending the debate around re-staging works.

Please do come if you can, follow the link below to book -
I think it will be really interesting day and insightful for much of your research.

http://transmissionperformancesymposium.wordpress.com

Drafts...

Feeding on from our last group skype call, I said I would post deadlines for drafts for you to help with your own timelines or check-lists of what needs doing when.

We have set a date for you sending us a last draft ahead of submission for 
TUESDAY DECEMBER 9TH.  

This gives us time to read and feedback before taking a break over the holiday period (Dec 19-Jan 2).  Please do think what you would like feedback on at this point.  Most of you on Module One are busy drafting your first AOL now and receiving feedback on this, from this experience you should feel ok to write the other AOLs, you do not need to send us drafts of each one.  So maybe that last draft submission for you is the reflective essay?  Or the evidence/illustrations for your AOL claims?  Module Two and Three, whilst a different preparation, still try to identify what you would like feedback on, this is not a pre-hand-in check as such, but an opportunity to seek clarification and support in order to move on with finalising your work for submission.

Any last questions you may have, you can contact us via email between Jan 2 and your submission date of Jan 5th, but we will not be able to read through or feedback on drafts of work at this stage.

Otherwise...I hope all is going well for everyone and that you're enjoying the journey!

Helen

Holding back...

It has been an interesting week and on a late Friday night reflection, I wanted to share with you my thoughts around trust, contribution, and value.

On trust...
I had a discussion a couple of weeks ago with some undergraduate dancers, stemming from their suggestion that 'students trust their teacher as given, but students have to earn their teacher's trust'.  So alongside a broader discussion of these two (assumed separate) roles, we talked about the notion of trust.  My belief being that this is something pretty pivotal to 'good' teaching practice and that it is something to be mutually earned by all in the transaction of sharing and learning.  It was really interesting to hear from others of their perception of roles and of the value and place of trust stemming from their own unique experiences of learning.  Some, through more traditional learning environments felt this 'automatic trust' was something naturally embedded with the student/teacher relationship, and had felt that it was within their (pre)defined role as student to gain the trust of the teacher.  They had never considered that trust within this context had the potential to be fluid on all parts.  Conversations developed through other sessions over the past couple of weeks, with the same, plus other students and encompassed debate on language, perception, autonomy, finding your voice, sharing, contributing, being honest, putting your ideas out there and being prepared to listen, respecting and valuing difference and diversity.  (I said it had been an interesting week!)

The terms, and ensuing notions of 'student' and 'teacher' really struck more of a chord with me as the week progressed and I continued to review my own feelings on, and observe these relationships in different contexts.   This evening, reading some of your blogs, your thoughts on these roles, your experiences (directly and indirectly) and in particular an interesting thread from Rose, Mary and Maria, on holding back from getting thoughts out there at times, through feeling the need to really digest and clarify what it is you want to say first made me want to share in this blog.

Really pleased that you put this up Rose, however 'late night, unconsidered' it may have felt to do so.  I think this is a significant step in letting thoughts exist in a wider space than your self, and in doing so inviting others views and comments; in having opinions and not being afraid to voice them openly; in accepting a certain vulnerability that we all (as humans) have I believe, and the possibility of stumbling, maybe even falling at times, actually being a great thing - a great way of learning.

A couple of references are coming to mind to me now as I write this, so I'll through them in for you to build your own thoughts on too, Emilyn Claid, 2014 On Falling About (a research report for/from/with Roehampton University) and A TED talk by Brene Brown on The Power of Vulnerability.  Both examples talk about our capacity as humans to interact to learn, to fall to learn, to accept vulnerability rather than holding back in case..., to learn.

We all have our own stories to share, our own unique experiences, and have the potential to share these through different means.  It is through sharing and interacting, acceptance and value of both our self and others, that learning takes place for all. Please don't hold back from rambling your way through your thoughts on your blogs, these are the perfect place for sharing and learning in the environment of the MA.

Keen to hear your thoughts...rambled or otherwise!

Helen