Part 1: 

I am feeling OKAY. It has been a busy and also emotional week. There were plenty of meetings after school and we also started sport again, so it’s going to take some time to get used to my new schedule. We also have a group assignment that is keeping me far busier than I would like. It was also emotional because my dog (who is 14 years old) was in and out of the vet and things just aren’t looking good, so I’ve cried a lot over that. 

In terms of university work, I am still trying to find my bearings with the new modules and all of the little tests or forum posts and assignments being uploaded, but so far have managed to stay on top of my due dates. 

I am however kicking myself a little bit today because I have let the whole weekend go by without doing any work. I did 2 very long training runs and also had a hockey match and then the next thing the days became nights. But am planning on getting lots done tonight.

Part 2:

I was particularly interested in the impact that music has on a child’s cognitive and emotional developmentspecifically. Due to the fact that I do not know a lot about music, it was incredibly interesting to me that we can use music in so many ways to encourage creativity, expanding vocabulary, enhancing literacy skills and imagination, and that music education can promote higher-order thinking skills, logical and abstract thinking and internalisation of knowledge. I also never considered the impact that music has on emotions and figuring out how different music makes us feel, and as a result, how to express these emotions. 

Part 3:

I do not believe that my current knowledge and skills for teaching music through movement are not where they would need to be in order for me to be confident in presenting a class. My confidence is low due to the fact that I do not have practical experience. However, the good news is, the school where I work has asked that I join all 3 grade 3 classes for class music to help with classroom control and to just assist the music teacher where needed, so I am watching first-hand how it’s done, and that combined with this module should by all accounts prepare me to teach music to foundation phase learners. 

I would feel that incorporating physical education into a child’s curriculum would be far more beneficial. Although the study unit did raise some very valid and intriguing points regarding the incorporation of music, I do feel that physical education would be more beneficial. If we assess the various factors listed above, physical education is likely to satisfy more of these. Cognitively, a child is required to make more rapid decisions and assess different situations and circumstances more frequently than they would in music. Personally, they would need to learn how to cope with their level of competitiveness and the level of competitiveness of others. This would enable the child to learn more about themselves and the way in which they think and react to a sport or situation that might occur on the sports field. Sport and physical education is a very social environment. Naturally, physical education is not an individual activity, which means that the child is forced to interact with multiple children outside of their comfort zone and probably ones who they would not normally interact with. Physical education plays a large role in the emotional aspect of a child. Dealing with and understanding how to cope with loss as well as victory, shapes an individual. Dealing with loss is a true test of character. As a child, to be able to learn this early on is crucial. It can form wonderful characters of future sportsmen and women. Physically, a child playing outside and performing various activities can only strengthen them. By them being outside and playing, they are developing hand-eye coordination and understanding how their bodies work and how they can get their bodies to do certain tasks.  

I feel that this module will be incredibly beneficial in my journey towards becoming a well-rounded teacher. Music is a life skill, and also plays a massive role in shaping a child’s development, which makes this module valuable to an early childhood educator.