Task 1b - Professional Communication Technology

When I found that Task 1b consisted of reading a Course Reader on Professional Communication Technologies and the use of Web 2.0 I have to admit I panicked a little. I am confident with using my laptop for both personal and professional use but throw a few technical terms at me and I run a mile! So I took a deep breath, made a strong cup of tea and sat down to read it. I needn't have bothered with the stress and worrying stage of this task because as soon as I had begun reading I discovered it wasn't the technical nightmare I had built it up to be, more like a fancy name for the way I use the internet on a daily basis! I was quickly scribbling down pages of thoughts, benefits, problems and ideas on the use of Web 2.0 within my life and the way the world is run today.

Working within a school, we have to be very aware of the issues surrounding web communication in order to ensure the children are safe and knowledgeable about all aspects of the internet. We also have to be vigilant in ensuring confidentiality of both staff, pupils and parents personal information. Children these days are very 'tech savvy' and often their confidence outweighs their knowledge of any dangers, it is part of my jobs to ensure that the children not only know all about how to use the web as it is such a critical part of every day life nowadays but how to keep themselves and their personal information safe. Primary Schools use Web 2.0 in many ways to be able to communicate with parents quickly, cheaply and effectively. For example, there is now an official school twitter site which has been put to great uses over the past few months of snowy weather. School was closed at midday due to the weather and so the head teacher informed the parents via twitter, the parents are now used to checking twitter on a regular basis, especially if something could be happening, and so the process of sending children home was made so much easier thanks to communication technology! Also any time the children are taken out of school, a teacher is left in charge of keeping the twitter account up to date with pictures, tweets and map locations of where we are and what we are doing - this has made a big impact on the parents and how they feel about letting the children go on adventurous trips!

Personally, I am a big Facebook and twitter user, always have been. Dare I say it I am addicted to checking what's going on with my friends around the world! This addiction to checking my phone and laptop at every available occasion started when I left college and all my friends set off on their dancing adventures around the world, keeping in contact with people whom I would have lost contact with pretty much instantly. This not only helped me keep in contact personally but professionally. Having contact with people with similar interests, jobs and qualifications as you helps to network and develop careers in ways that may not have been possible before the invention of Web 2.0. It the world of performing arts its often not what you know but who you know in the business and so keeping contact with people from many years ago through Facebook can give you the step in the door you need. It won't GET you the job but an get you the time to prove yourself to the people that matter! I used Web 2.0 technologies to help me set up my dance classes. I researched, networked and advertised using social network. It really did help to decide what classes would be popular, when would be the best time for them, where the best locations were and then finally advertise the classes to more people than I would have been able to without the help of the internet. All for free from the comfort of my own home! Who would have thought it?!
After looking at the reader I thought would have a look around the internet to see what was being said about networking and finding jobs through communication technology. I found this little article which seemed relevant and interesting :
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1903083,00.html

(I hope that link has worked!!)

For all the benefits, there are of course negative aspects in the technology, once something has been put out there it is going on impossible to get rid of it - many celebrities have fallen foul of this and always will but on a day to day basis all it takes is one picture or video posted of a professional person and their career can be destroyed. It can be as dramatic as that. Once again I had a look around the internet to see what was being said and came across this article which illustrates issues I have been discussing.
http://www.reputation.com/reputationwatch/articles/how-three-online-reputations-were-ruined
Of course there is the story of the riots around the country in August 2011, these were started, organised and advertised all via Facebook. Would this have been able to happen on such a grand scale without the development in technology? Possibly in one location with local gangs but across the country? Perhaps not.

Web 1.0 will always be used and useful to anyone who is trying to access information via the internet however Web 2.0 has opened up the internet in ways that many didn't see possible. Personally, I believe that Web 2.0 has made a massive impact on everyone's lives, whether they are aware of it or not. It has changed the way people communicate with friends and family around the world, buy and sell things, announce news, discover the world, learn anything and everything, get jobs, network professionally, release their work to the world and accept strangers judgements in return, and anything else someone may want to do!
Providing it is used with care, I believe Web 2.0 is an essential tool for professional communication, no matter which line of work you're in.

Task 1a: My CV

Well I have updated my profile with information about me however not enough to constitute a CV so I thought I would put more information into this entry. My profile has some information about my work over the past few years however I decided to concentrate on writing to introduce myself instead of to list my previous employment. I am not sure whether there is enough information about my career so far so I will leave it for now, have a look around and then come back to it soon and possibly make a few tweeks.

I have had a look around other peoples task 1a blogs from across the years and have found a range of CV styles from written essays to bullet points to simply a short summary of whet kind of jobs they have had are working on now. I particularly like the ones that have been organised into clear sections as it looks clean and neat which I think can say something about your personality to an employer. I also enjoy reading more casual ones in the 'about me' section as I feel I can get to know the person a lot better, however this is different to writing a CV for employment I guess.
 
Over the years I have applied for a wide range of jobs that required different types of CV's therefore I have many different documents stored on my laptop! When applying for my job as a teaching assistant recently, I didn't need to submit a CV, instead I had to complete a lengthy and very detailed application form! This was very laborious, especially considering i was applying for many jobs at the same time, however it did ensure that each application was thorough and personal to the job as it stopped me (and I'm sure many others) from simply printing off many CV's and sending them out to anyone who would look!
When writing a CV I usually like to add a brief description of what each job entails as I am aware that I cross over both the 'dance world' and 'education world' and the qualifications in dance and performing arts don't always necessarily mean anything to those working within schools (and vice versa). I feel this not only helps to show what I have done but what skills and responsibilities I have shown.

Hannah Shepherd CV

Education

Further Education:              Laine Theatre Arts, Epsom – Professional Dance and Musical Theatre.

                                       Trinity Diploma in Professional Dance (NVQ Level 6)

                             ISTD Foundation in Dance Instruction – Ballet teaching qualifications

                                       Teaching Assistant Level 3

GCSE Level Qualifications:         11 GCSE’s A*-B including English (Literature and Language) Maths and Science

Additional Qualifications:            Emergency First Aid at Work (St John’s Ambulance June 2011-2014)

                                                Fully CRB cleared (enhanced)

                                                Matrons License

                                                Confident with ICT and technological equipment

Work Experience

Higham St John’s C of E Primary School September 2012 – Present

Position: Teaching Assistant and Head of Dance

Key Responsibilities:

Help raise teaching standards within the classroom by providing support for the pupils, the teacher and the school. Working with individuals, small groups and occasionally a full class to cover lessons and work on specific areas in need of attention within the curriculum. Special responsibilities include choreographing and leading morning exercise dances and leading many interventions with children across all year groups. I am assigned to work with all classes during each week and so have experience working with all age ranges across the curriculum.

As head of dance I liase with the class teachers to plan and present all curriculum dance PE lesson in order to not only teach them dance but extend their knowledge of their topic work by bringing it to life through creative or authentic dance styles and improve many important skills such as team work, spacial awareness and musicality.

MOVE! Dance and Fitness September 2010 - Present

Position: Founder and Teacher

Key Responsibilities:

To organise, promote and teach lessons to children, parents and staff including musical theatre, street dance, fitness and creative dance.I set up the lessons to ensure children have access to a range of styles within the arts, often trying to fit the clubs in with any work the children are doing at school.

Key Stage Teacher Supply September 2011- June 2012

Position: Supply Sports Teaching Assistant

Key Responsibilities:

To support all sports lessons within Lomeshaye Junior School and work alongside teachers to ensure consistency between year groups.

Burnley Borough Council Dance Department 2009 - 2010

Position: Dance and Fitness Teacher

Key Responsibilities:

Teaching dance and fitness classes to children and adults across the region in primary schools and community centres for the Primary Schools Project, Buffalo project (Burnley Food and Fitness Aimed at Lowering Obesity) local community groups and after school clubs. Responsibilities included promoting classes, planning lessons, arranging performances and liaising with relevant companies and parents.

East Lancashire School of Dancing 2009 - 2011

Position: Dance Teacher

Key Responsibilities:

Teaching tap, acrobatics, ballet, modern, jazz and musical theatre to a range of age groups. Choreographing and rehearsing solo and group dances for regional and national competitions. Part of the creative team for the bi-annual school production.

Ready, Steady...GO!

So day 1 of the dreaded degree course and so far so good! I have hopefully managed to get my blog up and running and have found most people starting the course also and attempted to put them into what appears to be called a 'circle'. Let's see if that has worked!
Unfortunately I couldn't attend the induction to an epic school trip the following day (more to follow) but managed to schedule a Skype induction with Paula which was very helpful and managed to calm many of my worries (and believe me there were a lot - it seems to be one of my biggest talents!) I'm just going to take it task at a time and see how I go, I am looking forward be getting into it and being able to enjoy using my experiences and knowledge to help me along the yellow brick road to graduation!

Talking of yellow brick roads, I thought I would share with you my wonderful trip with years 4,5 and 6 of my primary school. As I said in the 'about me' section of this page, I am lucky enough to work in a fabulously artistic school that puts great emphasis on the importance of arts in education. Every year the school puts on a big trip to London, bearing in mind we live in Lancashire and most of the kids haven't spent any time away from their parents other than the be at school, this is a big deal! Following a sleepover in school we got up at 2am in order to get 60 children washed, dressed, fed and on a coach ready to set off at 3.30am! 6 hours and 2 service station stop offs later we arrived in central London ready for our backstage tour of the National Theatre. This was fabulous and the children did me proud, asking brilliant questions about the theatres, and showing great knowledge and interest about all aspects of working in a theatre, After this we had a quick lunch at Planet Hollywood followed by a mad dash the Apollo Victoria theatre to see the matinee performance of Wicked. We have been studying the musical, its story line and themes, its set design and costumes for a while now so it was magical to see the children being sucked into the performance, watching Elphaba and Galinda on their journeys to the yellow brick road of Oz and then being able to discuss all aspects of it with such passion on the way home...that is until they all crashed out and slept until we finally pulled up outside school at 11pm. What a day. It certainly was "one short day in the emerald city!" Despite it being an extremely long and tiring day, it reminded me how much I love my job, how important it is for children to have these experiences and how lucky I am to share it with them!
Boy, I wish I could I have had trips like that when I was at school!