Hello from Melody!

 Hi everyone, I'm Melody and this is my first ever blog! 

I have danced all my life and after a career as a professional performer I have taught in a variety of settings both in the public and private sector.

My current full-time role since 2008 has been as course leader and teacher on a Level 3 Extended Diploma course in Performing Arts in Stoke on Trent. My main subjects are ballet and jazz, but my role also includes teaching contextual studies, leading a team of 8 teachers in the delivery of the course, planning and assessment and pastoral care of our students (something which has grown considerably in the last few years).

I also teach at a private studio one night a week teaching ages 12 - 24 years in ballet and jazz, although over the years I have taught ages 2 - 75 in a variety of styles.

For 4 years I was head of dance at a high school teaching KS3/4 and GCSE Dance. I've also been an assessor and mentor for the British Ballet Organisation (bbodance) for their teaching qualification students, levels 4-6.

Completing an MA has been something that I have wanted to do since completing my Level 6 qualification a number of years ago, but with a fulltime job and a young family the time never seemed right.

My decision to finally go for it came from the need of turning a negative situation into a positive one, a kind of now or never scenario! At very short notice during the summer, the college that we work in partnership with decided to withdraw the funding for the new first year students who should have been starting with us in September and just fund the continuing students for their second year. An absolute nightmare which will result in our college having to close after this year, but sadly another example of the arts not always being supported and valued.

Anyway, with a quieter year, older children and a change of job imminent, here I am!

I'm just starting to try to get my head around the handbooks - I found the session from Monday really helpful, but had to watch the recording yesterday as I teach on a Monday evening. Already had things happen at work this morning which I can start reflecting on! This is something which I haven't done since my Level 6 course but really enjoyed, and feel excited to do again at this point in my career.

I look forward to getting to know everyone as we go through this experience together!




Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK

Comments

  1. Unknown8 February 2022 at 14:27

    Hi Melody! What a great reason to star! Your positivity is something that will help us all in finding our reason why we are here and the motivation to continue with what we are doing! I'm really interested in hearing more about how you lead your team and how your ideas about teaching and learning in dance impact the wider team that you have and how that might be reciprocated with their own ideas and influences. Looking forward to getting to know you more through this course!
    Nicola

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  2. Melody Edge9 February 2022 at 01:54

    Hi Nicola, think it was you who commented on my other post, so I know who you are now! Sure, the way that our staffing works is fairly unusual for an FE course and is probably more similar to a vocational college model. I am the only fulltime employed member of staff, and the other teachers are all freelance and come in to teach on a part-time basis, each in their specialist subject/s. A few do a couple of days, whereas others just do between 3 and 6 hours a week for us.
    Finding ways of keeping everyone in the loop, following quality procedures and feeling like part of a team can be tricky as some staff are never physically in the building at the same time as each other! I really heavily on zoom, whattsapp (we have a staff group) and emails, and finding time to catch up with them in person whenever I can.
    The staff all have very different teaching styles and methods which I would never want to change as this massively benefits the students, but are all aware of the expectations and standards of the course. So although we all have slightly different ways of reaching the same goals get there! I personally feel that we all learn from each other, and love to observe other teacher's lessons to see how they approach things and get the best out of the students. Team teaching is also a fairly regular occurrence especially when working creatively, which we all enjoy and benefit from particularly when working with someone whose style you don't teach. I have learnt so much from doing this. I'm sure we'll wave on zoom soon!

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