School Placement 1

On the morning of my first placment in St Andrew's Primary school I felt quietly nervous but I also felt confident because speaking infront a crowd, be it age 10 or age 30, doesn't normally worry me and I take it in my stride. This is one of the many reasons this project was a good choice for me as I have had to be able to put my ideas across to Sarah, my Peers and Adele and although I already feel confident in doing this it is good practise in a porfessional environment and it is all building on my people skills.

I had everything organized into a craft box full of lots of bits I had bought or collected from my housemates or home. I had the umbrella's ready to go and all the blank t-shirts for the tie dye. I felt really organised and this is a skill I have really improoved on not just since startiong this project as I have had to motivate and schedule myself but since the begining of University. I have found that when there is no one there to do things for me or promt me as it has been since I left home I rather enjoy getting myself organised and ready for such events as a placement, hand in or a project. It gives me a clear head and I feel I can tackle anything that I have coming.

In terms of my first placement, i felt it went really well. Regardless of how prepared my materials and supplys were, as soon as I let the childrens start making thier umbrellas all hell broke loose. Tinsle, beads and glitter everywhere. I feel i managed the class sucsessfully; I had a system of calling 3 children out from the mian umbrella task at a time to tie dye thier t-shirts and then they would rejoin the group and this works quite smoothly.

I really enjoyed seeing the children putting all of thier creative input into the umbrellas but it was clear very quickly that I needed to re-stock on materials. I did not run out but I felt like I could of had larger quantities of what I did have as alot of it was scraps or odd bits I had found.

Another thing I really want to stress to the children in my next session is to add some sort of material around the outside of the umbrella that will have a fair amount of movement in the wind on the carnival day. Alot of the children had very stiff decoration and this will not have the desired effect on the day and will not aid the choreography that they will be taught.

*One admin type note is that my teacher had alot more children in the class than the 20 children confirmed to do the carnival on the 9th. The 30 children there were all shared an umbrella between two or 3 and this worked really well as there was also limited space. I still have some umbrellas left for the next session but all of the plain t-shirts have already been dyed and we are going to swap the classes round to make sure everyone gets a part of the experience. We are going to use a box of old t-shirts which unfortunately have a design on but this will mean the children still get to do some tie dye if they havent already.