Essay Example on Alex Morgan: Educational Leader, Student and Mentor

Introduction

My name is Alex Morgan, and I am an educational leader who is also in school, studying a bachelor of education. I share my experience and time between three main educational centres across my hometown. I have been engaging with the educational centers since my first year in college meaning I have seen several children grow in the center. These interactions have increased my experience with children and parents as I get to work with different educators and families across numerous settings of my profession. I recently completed my bachelor of education in Early Childhood. The degree will also result in extensive experience in different aspects involving children and their well-being. Having bachelors in education is, therefore, crucial as it will help further in realizing my career goals.

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Spending time with the children has been one of my best experiences, and I get to learn a lot from them while sharing my knowledge and skills at the same time. The three institutions I have engaged with are Hope Child Care, Joy place educational center, and Mary educational center. Working for different educational centers has been essential as it helps me understand the working and setting of a diverse working environment. The education center, which has been influential to my career, is Hope educational center.

Hope an educational center is a place where children from as early as one year are welcome to attend and grow their skills and capabilities. The facility has eight playgrounds and numerous play toys for each age group. The children are also taught different crafts and activities while at the institution. Hope educational center is crucial in changing the dynamics of education and upbringing to the immediate neighborhood by improving children's essential skills such as playing, social interactions, critical thinking and learning.

For this assignment, I obtained permission from Hope educational center and the parents of June, Amisah and Mount to observe and use the names of their children and photographs to complete this task. The observation phase was conducted with the help of four friends who facilitated recording and detailed notes taking later to be shared by the children.

Flute Stick

On Monday, 7th April 2014, I observed you, Amisah, playing with a flute stick by trying to rhyme it to create Do-Re-Mi lyrics. The tempo of the music and beats determined how much air you blew into the Flute stick. Sometimes you had to hold for a breath and pause for a while whenever you lost the rhythm. While playing the flute, you were also tapping your feet at the same time to accompany the beat. You were a creative, flexible and entertaining musician to watch and the different elements you interacted with daily became assimilated in how you produced the music works (EYLF LO 4.1, and 4.2, p.37-40).

Future Learning Opportunity

I have planned for you to be an exception flutist by interacting and engaging with some of the best artists in the genre. This experience will also offer a chance to explore numerous other talents that you possess, as there is a possibility for you to be engaged in more than one art. I will encourage and support you to be the best version of yourself. To use music as a storytelling platform where you can share your beliefs, ideas and experiences (EYLF LO 5.3). The use of sound to freely convey different messages and meanings will be the basis of our discussions together (EYLF LO 5.1, p.43).

Feeling the Music

Amisah experimented with a Colorful Piccolo Flute on Wednesday, 8 April. You were energetic and managed to produce unusual sounds that had varying tempos. I taught you that the sounds produced, whether hard or soft, would appear to the listener at a different pace. Therefore, sound A (sharp tone) meeting with sound B (light tone) would merge in the air and produce a mixture of both. You tried different sounds and said they created a fast and happy tone. When you decided to slow down the amount of air blown in the flute, you said that was the sad sound. You also tapped the drum with the heel-down when playing the flute and said that was the happy dance music. You repeatedly tried joyous dance music combinations while shaking your head and jumping around after every hit.

Evaluation of Learning

Amisah, while you played with the drum and the Colorful Piccolo Flute, you were experimenting on sounds and the various dynamics that arise when different tones are mixed. The loud tone you played faster is the forte, the soft is the mezzo-piano, and the slow, soft sounds are the pianissimo. The smile and laughter communicated the feeling you had when playing happy music. The movement of the body also showed that you could multitask even better when you enjoy the sounds. You also expressed negative feelings that come with pianissimo type of sounds (EYLF LO 5.1, p.43).

Pedagogical Documentation

Amisah, after looking at the video recordings we took while you were playing, we had time to interact and write down detailed notes of how you felt. You agreed that we should go through the videos slowly. You were happy to see yourself jumping up and down while playing the flute successfully. You were thrilled to share with your classmates and best friend how you managed to play the instruments and the enjoyment that came with the experience. After seeing the video of yourself playing the drum and flute, I asked you, "What you remembered about the incident?" The first response was "happy-dance music." You successfully remembered the events of the day and how they made you feel. The video and memories, therefore, gave you purpose and were associated with different experiences. The learning process was, consequently continuous, and you freely used the experience to highlight the purpose and stories behind them (Wright, 2012, p. 93). Expressing these experiences verbal and nonverbal while reconstructing the events of the day showed that you were able to learn and retell the meanings attached to these familiarities at a later stage (EYLF LO 5.3, p.45). These experiences were, therefore associated with novelty and played an essential role in your life.

Move Like an Animal

On Monday 14 April, I observed Amisah, June, and Mount participate in the "move like an animal" game. Amisah took the leadership role and instructed the others to follow her steps throughout the process. Amisah wanted to be the lion; therefore, she created her own drama and presented it to the others. She started by walking on all fours and roaring like a lion. As Amisah roared, the others created their own drama by imitated her roaring but with a lighter tone to show that, they were cubs (Dunn & Stinson, 2015, p. 6). The humor and happiness that came with the experience were shared among the three of you (EYLF LO 3.1, p.34).

Opportunity for Future Learning

Amisah, June, and Mount, as you have shown an excellent imitation of the lion, I have planned a drama and acting experience where you will be an animal of your choosing and imitate the animals walking style, with a combined verbal and non-verbal characteristics, and other physical attributes (Dunn & Stinson, 2015, p. 9-10). While performing like the animal, you will also be required to be creative in adding the characters of the animals under different emotional conditions such as when happy, angry, or sad (EYLF LO 5.5, p.47).

Performance

Amisah chose to be a pigeon; Mount was the kangaroo, and June decided to be an elephant.

AmisahAmisah, you combined body language and voices to imitate the pigeon. You decided to make unique sounds that matched those of a pigeon. Apart from the sounds, you flapped your hands and tilted your neck as if flying. (EYLF LO 4.1, 4.3, 5.1, 5.3). This created an image of a soaring pigeon to Mount and June. Therefore, your interpretations of the exercise were unique and detailed.

Mount

After watching Amisah's presentation, you were very motivated to offer better performance of the Kangaroo. You used your body to make small jumps and while holding your hands above the air like a kangaroo. While creating your animal performance, you imitated Amisah's use of voices but further invented a fictitious joey to emphasize that you were protecting a baby kangaroo. The presentation, therefore, involved emotions and a clear understanding of the concept being presented (EYLF LO 4.1, 5.1).

June

After watching Amisah and Mount's presentation, you were very motivated to offer even better performance. While presenting the elephant, you added many original features, such as the fictitious trunk and sluggish walking style on all fours. You made several trumpets, which symbolised that you were excited to perform the role. You also copied both verbal and non-verbal skills in your presentation by matching body movement with voices being projected (EYLF LO 5.1 5.3).

Evaluation of Learning

Amisah, June, and Mount, you were creative in your imaginations and how you wanted to convey our feelings to the other parties. Despite not realizing it, you worked together by building on the idea of each other to develop and refine one's knowledge regarding the animals. The sounds and body movements in this presentation were unique, making the performance to be your own (EYLF LO 4.1, 4.3, 5.1, 5.3). I feel like I offered both physical and emotional support whenever I realized that you were hesitant in sharing your ideas on how unique the presentation can be. To motivate you further, I chose my own animal (rabbit), performed a similar exercise as a response to your presentation, and emphasize the importance of being unique in creating art. Amisah, June and Mount, your performances showed that you were creative and courageous enough to adopt numerous ideas and merge them into a single unique concept. You were also able to differentiate the real world from the world of art or imitation (EYLF LO 4.4, p.40).

Pedagogical Documentation

Today we looked at the separate video recordings during your performance. Amisah, June, and Mount, you were given the respective video clips of your performances and other clips of animals. Amisah was asked to make a sound as June and Mount identified the type of animal which produces that type of sound and vice versa until the sequence was repeated. Amisah produced the sound of a pigeon, and both June and Mount shouted, "It is a bird." June handed the video of a pigeon to Amisah. When it was June's time to make a sound, she made that of Kangaroo and Amisah and Mount shouted, "It is a kangaroo." Amisah showed both June and Mount the clip of a kangaroo jumping. Mount saw the clips and happily started to jump once more imitating the kangaroo. The last video was that of an elephant. June identified the animal like an elephant while Mount made trumpets imitating the character of the animal.

As the kids interacted on their own level, they portrayed a unique understanding of the animals and how the performances of the animals showed the emotions, beliefs and practices regarding these creatures. Also, the videos were replayed, while the children were reflecting on the body movement and sounded each one made during the performance. By connecting the feelings, body movements of the three animals and sounds made you learn how to remember vital information and making connections between fictitious information and real experiences. The videos provided a physical reflective point where you could observe the ideas of others and implement them without interrupting ones' unique concepts. I feel that mount was mainly focused on watching the video clips of others while commenting on them and how they could property improve their animal performances. The latter shows that Mount has developed the ability to assess steps and listen to the sounds and experiences coming with critical thinking which promotes a new way of learning and exchanging...