Tuesday 26th April 2011
With the hoo-hah of the royal wedding and refreshingly sparse Mondays, the past two weeks at FBT has been rather slow, however, the four days in which we’ve worked have been very productive.
The morning started as they usually do with a morning of discussion, the main theme of this discussion was that of child protection. Doing workshops with children there are a number of special considerations that must be considered, paramount is that of ensuring that the children do not sustain injury whilst participating in the workshop whilst not stifling the creativity and reach of the activities.
The afternoon entailed research; we were both tasked on researching the members of the ‘Artists Association’ in order to create small biographicals about the artists that work with the trust for the FBT website.
Wednesday 27th April 2011
If you have been reading this diary regularly (I say regular…all two entries) then you’ll know that Wednesday is practical day. With a late start to the day we spent the first half of the afternoon solidifying the ideas we were to take to Binbrook’s youth night later that day. This involved taking some of our basic drum stick ideas and pre-empting the varied age range of our participants and how best to include people of differing ages and abilities.
Late afternoon involved a trip to the ‘Healthy Hub’ to assist our office partners ‘Lincolnshire Dance’ (LD) at the press launch for their “Dance for Life” initiative. The event was quite interesting and was a good insight into the work that LD does and the public face of the organisation, as well as a live demonstration of a typical dance workshop. This event provided us with our own ideas (albeit abstract) on how we would organise and hold a press/public relations event, something to consider for the future.
The evening brought with it the aforementioned workshop at Binbrook. This was the first time Pete and I had led a workshop of our own and it was a nerve wracking as well a useful learning tool. As the children were of different age ranges and abilities we chose to do a drums stick workshop that would be suited to this criteria. Being new comers to the youth club, we found that the children were reluctant to engage at first with the workshop we were presenting. But as time went on they became a lot more receptive and by the end of the session were comfortable with us being there.
With the hoo-hah of the royal wedding and refreshingly sparse Mondays, the past two weeks at FBT has been rather slow, however, the four days in which we’ve worked have been very productive.
The morning started as they usually do with a morning of discussion, the main theme of this discussion was that of child protection. Doing workshops with children there are a number of special considerations that must be considered, paramount is that of ensuring that the children do not sustain injury whilst participating in the workshop whilst not stifling the creativity and reach of the activities.
The afternoon entailed research; we were both tasked on researching the members of the ‘Artists Association’ in order to create small biographicals about the artists that work with the trust for the FBT website.
Wednesday 27th April 2011
If you have been reading this diary regularly (I say regular…all two entries) then you’ll know that Wednesday is practical day. With a late start to the day we spent the first half of the afternoon solidifying the ideas we were to take to Binbrook’s youth night later that day. This involved taking some of our basic drum stick ideas and pre-empting the varied age range of our participants and how best to include people of differing ages and abilities.
Late afternoon involved a trip to the ‘Healthy Hub’ to assist our office partners ‘Lincolnshire Dance’ (LD) at the press launch for their “Dance for Life” initiative. The event was quite interesting and was a good insight into the work that LD does and the public face of the organisation, as well as a live demonstration of a typical dance workshop. This event provided us with our own ideas (albeit abstract) on how we would organise and hold a press/public relations event, something to consider for the future.
The evening brought with it the aforementioned workshop at Binbrook. This was the first time Pete and I had led a workshop of our own and it was a nerve wracking as well a useful learning tool. As the children were of different age ranges and abilities we chose to do a drums stick workshop that would be suited to this criteria. Being new comers to the youth club, we found that the children were reluctant to engage at first with the workshop we were presenting. But as time went on they became a lot more receptive and by the end of the session were comfortable with us being there.
The majority of our first workshop saw assistance from Liam, being a familiar face and also more experienced in workshop leading, he put his spin on our content and generated new ideas for us on the spot as well as offering advice and demonstrating ways of working with the children. The session proved to be a fun one, an hour and a half passing by in seemingly minutes and by the end of the session it was clear to see that the children had enjoyed themselves and learnt something in the process.
Tuesday 3rd May 2011
Environment scanning returns!
Environment scanning returns!
Top of the list for this particular Tuesday was researching ‘Do Something’ an organisation in the U.S. involved in all manner of causes, more specifically to get young people involved. Do Something’s tag line is “using the power of online to get teens to do good stuff offline”, in essence they’re an enabler; providing funding and information for young people who want to set up clubs/groups to raise awareness of and tackle any cause they wish. It’s an extremely different way of working to Firebird but provides some good ideas all the same, the element of teaching people how to run their own workshops or being an enabler would be a great way to get a long term benefit out of short term schemes that the trust may have.
As well as researching Do Something we also research Norfolk based “Community Music East” (CME). CME are in many ways very similar to The Firebird Trust but are a much larger organisation with bigger initiatives, maybe slightly exclusive to the community at large in some cases, focused mainly around young people. In any case it reaffirmed within us, the importance of inclusion.
Wednesday 4th May 2011
Wednesday found us in Binbrook for our second night. Having been introduced to the children the previous week we went in with bags of confidence, comfortable with the people and the environment. Taking things up a notch each time is a phrase we’ve been accustomed to and this time round we came armed with some basic percussion instruments, hoping to build upon what we did the previous week.
In reality the instruments proved to cause more confusion than they did anything constructive. Although they were happy enough playing with the instruments on their own and “making noise” (which is all good fun in its own right), when it came to orchestrating a piece with multiple patterns playing against each other timing proved to be the big issue. Maintaining a steady pulse amongst everyone was very hard work as each individual needed to be kept in time by myself, Pete or Liam and with a group of ten or more this proved to be an impossibility. This, however, is no reflection on the children, rather a reflection on our expectations of the group and part of our learning process in fathoming what works best with that particular group.
To salvage the situation that had arisen we went back to the very basics…body percussion! This format seemed to work great, the children being able to replicate almost all the rhythms we gave them and also showing us their own rhythms. An off the cuff body percussion solo from Pete served to excite and inspire the group even more and the session ended on a high.
Summary
To summarise; the past two weeks have been both relaxed and intense. We carried out more research and environment scanning to aid our understanding of the trust and to generate new ideas. At Binbrook we further developed our skills as workshop leaders and gained more insight into how people of different ages and abilities react to the workshop content we’ve generated so far. Another productive week!
As well as researching Do Something we also research Norfolk based “Community Music East” (CME). CME are in many ways very similar to The Firebird Trust but are a much larger organisation with bigger initiatives, maybe slightly exclusive to the community at large in some cases, focused mainly around young people. In any case it reaffirmed within us, the importance of inclusion.
Wednesday 4th May 2011
Wednesday found us in Binbrook for our second night. Having been introduced to the children the previous week we went in with bags of confidence, comfortable with the people and the environment. Taking things up a notch each time is a phrase we’ve been accustomed to and this time round we came armed with some basic percussion instruments, hoping to build upon what we did the previous week.
In reality the instruments proved to cause more confusion than they did anything constructive. Although they were happy enough playing with the instruments on their own and “making noise” (which is all good fun in its own right), when it came to orchestrating a piece with multiple patterns playing against each other timing proved to be the big issue. Maintaining a steady pulse amongst everyone was very hard work as each individual needed to be kept in time by myself, Pete or Liam and with a group of ten or more this proved to be an impossibility. This, however, is no reflection on the children, rather a reflection on our expectations of the group and part of our learning process in fathoming what works best with that particular group.
To salvage the situation that had arisen we went back to the very basics…body percussion! This format seemed to work great, the children being able to replicate almost all the rhythms we gave them and also showing us their own rhythms. An off the cuff body percussion solo from Pete served to excite and inspire the group even more and the session ended on a high.
Summary
To summarise; the past two weeks have been both relaxed and intense. We carried out more research and environment scanning to aid our understanding of the trust and to generate new ideas. At Binbrook we further developed our skills as workshop leaders and gained more insight into how people of different ages and abilities react to the workshop content we’ve generated so far. Another productive week!
Don't forget to check out our video blog!:
The Firebird Trust
The Stables, Wellingore Hall
Wellingore
Lincoln
England
LN5 0HX
Wellingore
Lincoln
England
LN5 0HX
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