Sheahan's MA Professional Practice Blog

 Hello MDX Team, As many of you know, as I prepared my inquiry for Module 2, I was asking about setting up a ZOOM account with MDX for my interviews in Module 3. I asked in our What's App group and received some great ideas. I did follow advice and created my own account using my MDX email, however, I then realized the free personal account has its limitations. Limitations that would not work for group interviews. Now I have made a discovery I want to share in hopes of helping others find and use the MDX ZOOM account more easily.  Here is how I set up my ZOOM under the MDX licence using my MDX email. There are settings already chosen and locked by the University but there are lots you can personalize.  When logged in to your MDX student account, click on My Learning Essentials.   On the right-hand side in a column is the list of Online learning - useful resources . Yes, they are useful resources!  In that list, you will see Zoom and newrow guides . Click that....

This may seem a ridiculous thing to post about but the parallels in my worlds are revealing themselves everywhere and I wanted to share.  As we approach exciting deadlines for MDX, ISTD ballet exams, marking for end of term papers for my students, competition beginning, and workshop presentations for Healthy Dancer Canada, my need to be almost obsessively prepared overtakes me and I see the parallels in all areas of my life. Ensuring we have edited and proofed our essays and included all the required appendicies for our inquiry submission is not only equivalent to dotting the Is and crossing the Ts, but akin to the preparation for performances.  I enter into my first year as a competition choreographer since Covid occurred I see the parallels in the studio and in my home office space regarding preparedness.  The addition of sequins, altering, gathering or ruching costumes is just like downloading, filling, double-checking Award forms, Employer support forms, making Table ...

As I tried to jump in the zoom conversation today, my wifi kept interrupting my participation, so I turn here to share my thoughts. I was excited about what was happening. I felt everything I read in Moon's book, our Module one text, was reflected in our conversation. Our own limiting beliefs and frameworks colour or taint what we connect with, what we take in as information, who we learn from and how or if we embody the materials. Our own experiences either assist in opening us to new information or ask us to dismiss it.  I feel our job in this MA is to hear all the voices we can, know how our own experience influences our learning, and then with that awareness be open to what else is out there. Have a look. Break out of the single-story narrative. Seek other perspectives. I feel the work explored by Descartes, Spinoza and Kant took one perspective and built upon it or shaped it into their own idea. Inspired by one another. Look at the contribution they made by having the courage ...

Hello Fellow MAPP-ers,  I am looking for feedback and discussion regarding my ideas, my process, to find my "Question" for Module two.  I want to do something with Dance for Life. I feel very passionate about the fact dance, and the arts, give us so many tools to use no matter where our life journey takes us. I see the education curriculum being steered away from the arts, especially here in Alberta, and feel compelled to investigate and understand the benefits of the transferable skills learned in the dance studio. To understand how our years of dancing benefit us throughout our lifetime, even after some leave it behind to pursue other interests.  There is a desire within me to explore what is learned in arts education, and perhaps share the findings to assist future generations to be able to experience the arts, specifically dance, in school. I perceive this curriculum change as limiting children's participation in the arts and perhaps limiting it to the privileged few ...

Fellow MAPP students, As I ponder ways in which to engage with others in the field of dance pedagogy in module two, I am struck by and have been toiling with the idea to look deeper into if and how pedagogical practices can be transferable over the arts and outside of the studio. Part of Dewey's theory that states 'all material must be relatable'. This catapulted the idea for me. What are we teaching the students during dance class that they can take with them into daily life, relate to their daily activities, skills that may assist in the development of their 'sovereign toolbox'? (just made that up!) Sovereignty in the sense of self-actualization and connection with self. Making autonomous decisions with awareness and the ability for self-care. I realize this may be a loose interpretation of what Dewy meant, but one can never know where a brainstorming session will take one.  How do the skills the teachers and students learn become embodied in a way that accompanie...

I am so grateful for technology. Even though I could not be present for the conversation, I can still partake in the rich ideas discussed via the video recording.  Although life circumstances have dictated that I will defer my studies for a term, seeing my colleagues online was inspiring and motivating. Thank you for your willingness to put forth your ideas - honest and curious. It helped bring courage for my own investigation as I keep my toe in the door of academia during this shift in my life.  The discussion has brought forth great ideas, more to consider, and an opportunity for reflection.  Brainstorming whom I can potentially talk to in my interview process, what research I may look into as I dive into dreaming about how art influences life, and more specifically, how dance influences and shapes our choices in life, keeps my own curiosity and creativity alive.   Even the vocabulary - shapes - speaks to how a dancer might explore with their physical ...