Finding Focus

Last week had been one of focus, finding my feet and feedback. 

After the discussion group on Wednesday 'Academic Writing Focus', I realised that I need to work on my academic skills to reach my full potential in this journey. I signed up for the Academic Writing Workshops including Essay Writing, Reflective Writing and Understanding Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism which I think will give me more confidence when it comes to producing my portfolio for module one. I think that having these sessions booked in has given me a big sense of focus and courage to get on with the work in hand. 

I also had a tutorial session with Sam to discuss my potential learning areas. Quite quickly I realised that I had over generalised my areas of learning and that I needed to focus on one main idea from the three areas. Realistically we only have 500 words to write about our learning area so I need to be more concise about what I actually want to look at. 

Being able to actually talk to someone about my learning areas made me realise what I actually wanted to focus on. 

For example, in a previous blog, I discussed my ideas of non-verbal communication and how I would like to discuss them in an area of learning however in the one-to-one with Sam we discussed what that actually meant and the focus is which I wanted to take. The outcome was that I wanted to look at body language especially within our industry when performers have to interpret the body language of a choreographer to ensure that they are using the correct intent within the movement. This is a more focused area of learning that I have taken from the idea of non-verbal communication to the interpret of body language between choreographer and performer. 

I have also been able to distinguish my area of learning around my idea of dyslexic learning styles, I think that I would like to focus on how being dyslexic allows me to develop skills that improve my own performance ability I will need to complete research from other dyslexic performers and look in-depth into my own coping skills and how others have used the same skills within our industry.

I still need to think about my topic surrounding recovery and how it affects us and if there is a difference between short-term and long-term recovery. I plan to write another blog entry discussing my own injury experiences hoping to find a more focused approach and being able to find a topic that will be researchable for the essay.

What I aim for this week:

• Find sources for both body language and my dyslexic open skills are of learning using the online library and Google Scholar
• Use the blogs to open a discussion about short-term and long-term recovery really think about how my own experience in creating this learning area to find a more focused approach
• Get stuck into the reading list so I can link more of the theories discussed in the handbook to my own areas of learning and professional practice

I found that writing a blog this week is making me more accountable for my to-do list and allow me to express my ideas in different formats helps establish my thoughts and I feel that I can look back to my blogs when writing my module essay.