What a semester it has been! I must admit I have found this to be the most stressful semester since I have started studying and am so glad that it is coming to an end. I have found that there have been so many issues and unfortunately the lecturers this semester haven’t always been the most helpful or very good at returning emails or communicating with the students which is a great pity as I don’t think they realise how much extra stress that puts on the students.

I have also had a lot more responsibility put on me at school which is always difficult to balance between varsity work and school stuff, although school does pay the bills so that sometimes means varsity work takes a back step.

Reflection:

1. What was your experience of the role of individual reflection as part of the teaching and learning process? Use the following prompts to reflect on your blogging experience and the role that individual reflection played (or not) in your teaching and learning experience this semester:

• What did you learn from your individual reflections?

Honestly, my individual reflections haven’t been the most informative as it is not something I do in my normal day to day life. They have unfortunately sometimes been just something extra that we have needed to do when I could have been focusing on an assignment or work that I needed to go through. I am quite an intuitive person naturally so don’t need to write it down in order to reflect.

• What did you find challenging?

The challenging part of the semester was the group project. Not challenging in terms of workload but the fact that I honestly did not see the benefit of working in a group. In my group, I have about 2 other people who actually joined the discussions constructively and worked properly in the group. I understand that in group projects there are always those that don’t pull their weight but when it comes to doing it via distance there is a whole other matter that one needs to take into consideration.

• Did you find the individual reflections meaningful? Please motivate your answer.

As mentioned previously, for me the reflections were not too meaningful but that is just who I am and how my brain works. Writing the reflections did not change how and what I learnt.

• What would you change if you had the opportunity in future?

I don’t think that the reflections are a necessary part of the module unless there is ongoing interaction with someone. It was basically like writing in a diary which we could all do on our own if we wanted to.

2. Please share what you would change in the LSKM221 module if you had the opportunity. The following prompts can guide your reflection:

• What did you find interesting and meaningful?

I really enjoyed learning about all the different concepts and parts of music that one needs to take into consideration for music. I loved that there were ideas of how they could be implemented and used in the classroom.

• What challenged you, and what do you still struggle to understand?

The different aspects of music such as beat, tempo as well as the texture etc. of music. I think it is something that one just needs to continue to be exposed to in order to understand more.

• What didn’t you find valuable for your future teaching practice?

I wouldn’t say that it wasn’t valuable but found that it has been repeated in a number of modules and that is the information from study unit 1. I do believe that the learning theories have been repeated in so many of our modules so far that I don’t think it is necessary to be repeated in this one as well.

Thank you for all your hard work and for always trying your hardest to explain the information to us as in-depth as you can. I have definitely learnt more about music itself and this will be valuable going forward.