Yaaaaaaay! It's the las blog post! 

I hope everyone is well and as excited as me that this is our last blog post. It was fun and I learned a lot but I am overjoyed this chapter is behind me now. 

To be truely honest before this subject and semester my knowledge in skills based on music and art interpretation in the foundation phase was not very good. I knew the basics and with the help of google I would have managed to made up some activities in the classrooms but now enough background information as to why it is so important to incorporate these content areas in the foundation phase. After this subject and semester I feel I have a much better understanding of how to incorporate music and physicical movement as well as art and play in my daily lessons in the foundation phase, I also feel I understand better now as to why it is important to incorporate these elements and the answer is simply to develop the child holistically.

• What did you learn from your individual reflections? I Learnt a lot from my individual reflections. I feel like the blogs was a great help. If I struggled to answer the questions I knew I did not pay enough attention in some content areas and had to go back and re read or recap myself as to what happened and highlight the important parts. I could see what I understood and with what elements I struggled. 
• What did you find challenging? I found some of the content areas a bit challenging as well as keeping up with all the blogs and remembering to do them or post them daily, or at least think of them while doing my study units. 
• Did you find the individual reflections meaningful? Most defenitely. As I said previously, it helped me highlight which areas I understood best and which needed more attention and some recap work. 
• What would you change if you had the opportunity in future? I would have maybe lesson the group refelctions and maybe combined that into a like a mini portfolio where alll the group members discussions or statements were captured and then joined to answer the questions. I think it was a bit much to keep upm with individual reflections and group reflections that are actually also individual. 

• What did you find interesting and meaningful? Overall I found this subject very interesting as I like to be creative and love music. I learned alot and my favourite study unit was study unit 2 where we learned about body percussions and how to incorprate music in lessons etc. 
• What challenged you, and what do you still struggle to understand? The blogs really challenged me and the first assignement about the music lesson with body percussions. I thought I did really well and took an activity from the internet and adapted and changed it completely to be my own. I only took insipiration from the one off the internet. But I got 35% and the assignment counts 20% of our year mark. I feel that we should at least then get another opportunity to make up marks as more than 10 students told me personally that they also failed. With so many students failing such a asssignment surely we must make a compromise? 
• What didn’t you find valuable for your future teaching practice? Nothing. Everything in this module is gold and I will forever be using this in my future classrooms. Thank you!

Good day!

Hope you are well and keeping up. I am currently feeling that we are overloaded with too many assignments and tests to keep up with. Its really a struggle to work from 07:00-15:00 and then coach sports till 17:00, tutor till 18:00 and then still go study in the evenings. Anyway, we will get there. 

Some of the reasons that comes to mind when thinking of the assessment in Performing Arts that are being neglected, can be that it is seen as a waste of time subject. I think that not everyone realizes the importance of the integration of Arts in their teaching and that it is actually something to help develop important skills and knowledge through active engagement which contributes to learning through experience. When the teachers/principal does not even see the importance of incorporating these as a subject or even in other subject areas then no assessment can possibly done, neither would they want to create a extra effort for something they do not believe is neccessary, 

I would explain to my HOD that performing arts and music education in the foundation phase is a very important part of the phase of schooling. There are lots of facts and studies that shows the benefits of having these as subject areas in the curriculum for foundation phase. If something is so important and vital for a child holistical developemt it is of extreme importance for this to be assessed. This also falls in the life skills CAPS and has to be assessed. This needs to be done in order to help learners that are behind to make up some grades or marks for them to do better. Its also important to use it as a tool to see how children are developing in different areas of schooling. 

Goodluck with your weeks and enjoy your day.

When I speak to the HOD, I would explain how important it is to integrate performing arts with our subjects. This is where the learners get the chance to express themselves and explain what they understand under certain concepts. This motivates them and is not only something fun to do, which is a waste of time. The integration promotes both teaching and learning. Active engagement helps learners to learn through experiences and gain knowledge by exploring by themselves. This is far better than just trying to cram a lot of theory and work into the learners' brains. The assessment of performing arts should also be seen as important, because the learners should be assessed on what they know, what they still need to learn and what skill they have mastered. The assessment helps you to keep track of the learner's development and learning. You can then also see where more attention is needed and what they still need to learn. The Performing Arts-subject should also be seen as an important subject, just like Mathematics or any other subject. 

Hi Everyone!

Today was a good day. This week has been average. We has a lot of sports days and schooling events this week and I am struggling to keep up with all the university work at night. I really do believe that I am not the only one feeling like this. This was an interesting but challenging study unit as it gave the impression of a very important study unit as this one and the study unit 1 formed the foundation of the entire subject itself. 

I most certainly do not feel that art integration in the foundation phase is a waste of time. Foundation phase consists of small young children with developing brains that are so imaginitive. Arts is extreemly important in bringing out their imagination and their creative sides. It is also a form of relaxation for children as it is considered fun and not school work and all learners enjoy it. Art can never be seen as a waste of time and it is an important subject or content area in the foundation phase as it prickles childrens creativity, excites them, boosts creative childrens self esteem and it develops childrens fine motor skills. 

What I found most interesting of this unit was learning about the value of arts integration in the foundation phase. Arts integration has been proven to contribute towards higher motivation levels among learners and supports academic achievement and socialisation among learners. 

What I found most challenging of this study unit was theoretical framework of art integration. It is alot of ways in which music can be integrated into foundation phase classrooms. However after reading it several times, I finally understood it. 

Have a wonderful week!

Good day everyone!

I hope you are well and keeping up with your studies as I am failing my efforts. I am struggling to find a balance between work, studies and a social life this week. It seems the further you fall behind the more endless the struggle of getting back is. In this study unit I really enjoyed learning about how incorporating play is important for developing a child holistically. 

I thought that all the activities were fun and engaging, however I do understand the two learners concerns that they brought up. Ons of the children felt uncomfortable due to the fact that he did not understand the words in the passing rock zulu game. This is understandable as he is thinking that he is just following words from the teacher but has no clue what it means. One way to resolve this is to break down the song for the learners and explain some of the key words or phrases so that they feel safe in understanding what it means. Learners want to feel secure and confident in what they say aloud in the class. The girl felt uncomfortable to dance in front of boys on house music, this was based on religious meaning and ethics from home. A way to resolve this is to know about the learners backgrounds and asking lesrners prior to the lesson if they would like to participate or not, especially improvising individually in front of the entire group. 

To accommodate diverse learner profiles in classrooms I would make a point of asking 2 learners per week to come and openly talk and learn their fellow peers about their culture etc. This will help children understand diversity and to learn from anothers culture and also to experience and be exposed to different cultures. Cultural diversity is so important in schools now adays and needs to be foccused on more. 

Have a great musical week everyone!

Good day everyone! 

This week has been hectic at work. There were too many things to handle at once and way too little time to everything. Story of my life. I hope everyone is well and that your week has been better than mine?

Study unit 2 was interesting. I really enjoyed learning about the various types of music activities that is suitable for Foundation Phase learners and the value of body percussions in the FP. I did not really struggle or felt challenged with any of the parts of this unit as I very much enjoyed learning about it. 

As a Foundation phase teacher, I am more likely to choose contemporary commercial music. The reasons behind my choice is that this type of music is easily accessible and listened to by most children in this phase. Children mostly learn the songs from movies and television shows as well as games etc. They do not often hear indigenous music of western music as they are not exposed to it often enough.  I feel that if the majority would better understand and enjoy Contemporary music then there is no use in only foccussing on music that do not hear. However I do believe that it is important to incorporate indigionous or western music in the curriculum in ordee to expose more learners to cultural diversity etc. I simply choose contemporary as it is more commonly known and understood and relatable by most children, which makes it easier. 

I truely do believe that the examples and content for Study unit 2 are inclusive. It provides a wide variety of different examples and equips a student with the necessary information to understand what this Unit is about. However I would have liked more examples from other grades as well, which would help other foundation phase teachers of other grades. 

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Good day

I hope everyone is doing good and everyone is keeping safe and healthy. This was a good week. I am always excited to start a new study unit and look forward to seeing what I will be learning about this time. Things are quite at school and it’s just going great at the moment in my personal life.

My current confidence in my knowledge to integrate music in the foundation phase to teach music through movement is not completely zero or hopeless. I work as an assistant teacher at a school and always have ample opportunities to learn from great teachers and have seen them integrating music through movement in their lessons. However my knowledge stops there and I only know of a few examples. I am nt stressed about this as I know that after completing this module or even this unit I would have built at least some more valuable skills and gain greater knowledge of how to incorporate these important aspects and to use this in my teaching days to come.

I would choose Physical movement. I do believe that music education is also important and that an equal balance should be found to develop the child holistically. However I feel that learners need physical movement in order to take brain breaks during lessons as well as to keep the lessons interesting and keeping children’s attention. In my own experience as class assistant, I have found that learners appreciate a brain break during or after lessons in the form of physical movement inside or outside of the classroom. Children can only focus for 20 minutes at a time and then needs a brain break.  In order to holistically develop a child they need to be exposed to a healthy learning environment and physical movement creates just that.

I hope you have a wonderful week!