Lifelong learning

That's what I used to advocate as part of my day job and yet it's rare I push myself hard on the learning front these days. The most learning I tend to do is song words!
However, I got the opportunity to go on a 2-week training course for an Associate Diploma in Performing Arts teaching in April, and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

So I packed my bags and went away to Surrey (leaving my endlessly long-suffering husband with the boys on their Easter hols!). And I had the most amazing time. We had fantastic input from theatre and opera directors, dancers, singers and musical-writers. We even got to create a musical from scratch in 6 hours.

This was so much more than simply classroom management. It was about how you inspire young people to want to learn and develop their skills in the performing arts. And the focus was very much on the teacher as inspirer, performer and enabler. I left the course having found skills I didn't know I had, as well as being very clear about the things I'm not so good at (frankly, I'd already had my suspicions, but the dance class confirmed that Fonteyn or Darcy Bussell have nothing to worry about....!).

I've just been preparing the work for Stagecoach this term and, whilst it's not completely different to how I planned last term, I feel like I'm putting something coherent and worth attending together which I can defend and which will stand me in good stead for the 10 weeks in question. There's a confidence to my planning which I haven't had before.

So, all in all, a fortnight well spent, even though I was so tired I could barely speak by the end of it! I'm just waiting to hear about my exam results for this unit and then it will just be the last exam to do. It doesn't just feel like a piece of paper, however. I've learnt how to do things better and how to be more confident in getting young people enthused about using their voice. This is exciting stuff!

I've also come away feeling like a better performer as well as a better teacher, which is a welcome and unexpected by-product.

In the words of the great Hannibal Smith - "I love it when a plan comes together!"