College One: Research and First Impressions...

The Stockport Introductory Session on Monday 11th March, made me feel comfortable in my choosing of College One. I knew College One would take me out of my comfort zone and meeting everyone else that is doing College One was a good way to start. The Ice Breaker of getting into pairs and using the knowledge of their partners to put onto a cup was eventful and enjoyable, it helped everyone settle in.

All of the lectures done so far by Lynn Setterington and Kirsten Aubrey have prepared me in how to approach preparing and running a workshop. I found most of the practical workshops challenging, they all placed me out of my comfort zone: they changed the dynamics of the group numbers, they only allowed me limited resources and I had to constantly be stimulating mine as well as other people's minds of creativity. Throughout the workshops, working in pairs and teams was encouraged, I surprisingly found out that I liked working in groups but still shied away from expressing our results at feedback time. As most of these workshops were aimed at helping us plan and produce our own workshop, I feel like my strengths lean more towards being organised, I see myself organising the materials we would need, budget costs, workshop sheets, lesson plans, time management. I would consider this to be my role, from this I would consider seeing myself working as part of a group in creating a workshop. But from all of the variety throughout the workshops, I was able to adapt and this boosted my confidence, so maybe I am ready to work individually.

Choosing the Organisation that would be best for me was a difficult decision, I narrowed it down to a possible 3: Venture Arts (working creatively with people who have disabilities), Z-arts ("to inspire generations of young people from Manchester and beyond to use creativity to reach their potential") and finally Darwen Aldridge Community Academy (a high school). I chosen Darwen Aldridge Community Academy (DACA) because I felt like it was more beneficial for my future career and for applying onto a PGCE  course. Louise Klinck also made the opportunity sound amazing and I wanted to be a part of it.