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Friday 28 November 2014

Placement at Bird College

Hello everyone J I know I haven’t blogged in a while but here I am. Better late than never as I always say.

In this blog, I am going to talk about the new placement that I have just started at Bird College, which is a performing arts college based in Sidcup. I am in the fifth week of my placement now and I am enjoying every second of it. As you may already know (if you’re a regular reader of my blogs) I am currently taking my PGCE in the Lifelong Learning Sector to be able to teach Drama/Acting to college students. Bird College is perfect for me as it specialises in my chosen subject, opposed to a college that just offers Drama among thirty or so other programmes.

So first of all I will just tell you a bit about what I am doing at the placement so far. Currently, I have been put into three different acting classes, one of the classes are looking at duologues, at the moment they are rehearsing scenes from A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney, which I studied in both the second and third year of my Undergraduate degree. After Christmas they will be doing duologues from musicals, and during this period the class will be split into two and I will take half of the class to help them with their scenes, which is really exciting as I am a huge fan of Musical Theatre. In the other two classes, they are just rehearsing plays for their end of year performance. One of the classes are looking at 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane, which is one of my all-time favourite plays. Below is a poster of the show that was performed at Royal Court in 1999.


As you can see from the poster, it is quite a dark play, which is kind of why I love it so much. In this class I have been given two scenes which I can design a lesson plan for and complete as part of my teaching practice. My mentor from Bird is coming to view me on 3rd December and then my Tutor from Greenwich is coming to view me on 7th January. So that is quite soon, so I’m a bit nervous, but I think it will be fine.

The other group are currently looking at The Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo which is quite a funny physical farcical performance, which is great. It is quite similar to Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, which I directed for my third year performance last year, in terms of the comedy and physical aspects of the performance. A timetable has not been devised yet, but I will also be given scenes from this play that I will direct as a part of my teaching practice.

Another thing that I am really looking forward to in my placement comes in the summer term. Most of the classes at Bird have their final examinations in March and the summer term is left to the staff to create a scheme of work based on the student’s needs. I have been offered a six week period where I can create my own scheme of work and teach between 1-6 different classes the same scheme of work. Which I think is amazing as it gives me a six week period at the end of the year to act as an actual teacher.


That’s all for today, I just thought I would talk a bit about my placement. Until next time, ciao J

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