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Communication of ideas Yesterday we had a wonderful Skype at am. I had the opportunity to speak with another student (probably from module 1 or 2) David, Adesola and Maria. However, I would like to talk with more people to share even more ideas on the subject because it was a very important theme that made me to start questioning things and ideas. We reached the core of the subject at the end of the discussion, which means that some topics need more time to be analysed because they are difficult to be framed. We actually talked about the framework of communication, something I found a little bit difficult to understand. Could communication have a framework? For me communication of ideas means the ability to share your ideas in the most appropriate way in order for them to be understood by your community (This is actually how the whole conversation started). Communicating  ideas creates a network of people and ideas where everyone has a dual role of transferring  and receiving ideas.
Sunday skype meeting   On Sunday I participated in both skype meetings am and pm. On the first skype meeting, it was only Hannah, Katya and me who participated. This gave us extra time to talk about our inquiries (Hannah and me) and AOL's (for Katya). It was all about communicating our ideas and thoughts. Personally, I found it very difficult. I think that I rambled a lot. Plus the comments I received from Adesola and Maria indicated that this rambling was not for good and certainly there was a lot of incomprehension, as I did not explain my inquiry theme well. It is true that I come from a different country and my mother tongue is Greek but right now  I have come to a point in my life that I speak three languages (Greek, English and French) at the same time (due to my seasonal work). However, it was difficult for me to speak English fluently and coherently at that moment.  And then I realised that the problem was not that I was not able to structure a sentence in English (daah!)
Knowledge and Learning Today I participated in a skype meeting that was very interesting. The theme was "knoweldge and learning". We talked about our experiences as former-students and now as teachers. Firstly, the conversation was based on knowledge and learning concerning this MA program. However, later I said that learning is the result of self-reflection and knowledge is certainly a result of this process. The induction of "self-reflection" changed the flow of the conversation. Do we reflect as teachers? Do we help/ give the stimulus our students to reflect during the lesson or afterwards? Do they learn through reflection? Maria mentioned that there is a difference between reflection and achieving critical thinking. I was really intrigued by all these questions and this conversation. I truly believe that even though we teach something practical (like ballet or contemporary dance)- something that involves movement, reflection plays a great role in the learnin
First Skype of the semester  It officialy started! I am feeling both nervous and excited. Adesola showed us -through sharing her screen- how to search on myUnihub. It was definitely helpful for the Module ones and I wished I had that experience last year because it was very difficult to discover things on my own.  This Skype signifies the beginning of a new module, the last one for this MA. I am nervous thinking all the things I have to do, the time pressure and the observation part (of my students). It will not be easy to be the observer and the teacher at the same time. I have to reconsider and revaluate the ideas I want to explore in my inquiry because-as Helen noticed- the amount of time offered is not as much as I thought. I am trying to answer back on the feedback (Helen has sent me) right now.  Although I am feeling nervous, I am feeling excited too. Module 3 signifies the end of a journey and maybe the step in order to go further with my studies. I am ready to delve into
2nd Sunday Skype discussion Previous Sunday, we had a fruitful discussion. Although my theme for discussion was not analyzed, I have to admit that I learned a lot from this Skype meeting. We discussed about our concerns on how to choose a theme for our inquiry and how we deal with specific problems during teaching. I was really intrigued by one phrase: "introduce a gap through our research". I kept thinking the meaning of that phrase and how this could happen. It is well known that every research or inquiry has its own limits due to various reasons; it might be the limited sample or the restrictions related to the space that do not enable the researcher to generalize his/her findings. This inevitably leads to gaps in researches. As a result, there should be more researches in order to generalize successfully the findings. But what happens when the researcher introduces something new? Personally, I think that introducing a gap means to divulge something that it did not exi
1st Skype meeting for module 2 La st Friday we had our first skype meeting for module 2. In this skype meeting, there were people from module 1, 2 and 3. Each one expressed his/her opinion and feelings for the previous module(s). It was a "what to expect" discussion as each one gave his/her tips to others in terms of work load, time-management etc. For sure, it was positive and reliefing to hear that others have experienced the same feelings or they had the same thoughts as I have. This discussion led me to think the term "knowledge" and "how we gain knowledge". According to Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, "knowledge is information and understanding about a subject which a person has, or which people have". During the first module, we approached knowledge and understanding through the form of previous personal experiences and reflection. In fact, we tried to analyze and evaluate each experience and understand which aspects of the exp
1st Skype meeting of the month Yesterday morning we had a very enlightening discussion about four main subjects: Multiple professional identities in dance, mental health and psychology for those who work in the dance field, flavor-technique and discipline inside the classroom. The multiple professional identities in dance are the subject that I brought up. I was really amazed to see that some of the participants had the experience of transition from one identity to another (dancer to teacher). During the discussion, one said that being a dancer is "all abouĻ„ you", correcting your own body and learning; on the other hand, the teacher pays attention to others, does not receive any feedback and sometimes he/she maybe feel lonely through this reflective process of transfering knowledge to others. Concluding, being a dancer is a self-center identity while being a teacher is put into the center the others and what the other need. From all the subjects that we analyzed yesterda