As the session on March 9th may be the end realisation of this project, I feel a short reflection and evaluation is necessary. If the workshop on March 27th is cancelled, then a longer reflection and evaluation will be uploaded. I will be focusing on the original aspects of the plan which are as follows;
I will evaluate the workshop as a whole in a future blog if the workshop on March 27th is cancelled.
As is evident from the audio recording, the 20 minute activity was popular among the group. The majority of the participants found the comical elements funny and enjoyed joining in with the activity. However, there were some elements that I feel I could change that would improve the activity in the future. Firstly, the participants didn’t quite understand the concept that each others’ actions were influencing each other, for example, the actor influencing the musicians choices. I feel this is partly from my lack of explanation but also due to the way in which the room was laid out. The chairs were arranged in a circle and the instruments were around the outside of the circle. This meant that often the actor was in the middle of the circle and the musician was removed from the situation. If I am able to do the workshop on March 27th, I will make this element clear through verbal explanation and will also move the chairs into rows so the musician and actor feel as though they are on stage together. I also received feedback from one of the volunteers following the session. He said that when it comes to doing this activity on March 27th, the Creative School pupils may not be as willing to do the exercises. In order to overcome this, I will ask the teachers to choose who they wish to do the activity. Rob and I feel this is a good idea as the teachers will know who is confident and who would enjoy it. They can also tell who may benefit most from the experience. A final aspect I would change is ensuring each activity is suitable for all of the participants as some require walking which some members of the Highbury Trust may be unable to do due to limited mobility.
The cool down was also successful and I feel that nothing about this activity needs to be changed/improved.
During the evaluation, I received amazing feedback from the group saying that the session was a lot of fun and that I did a really good job of delivering it! One participant said that they found the activities challenging however she too said that she enjoyed the experience. I will later write a blog on how the evaluation conducted fits into the evaluation methodology I researched.
Overall, I would be happy to use this workshop as my realisation however it would be lovely to run the workshop on March 27th and improve the areas I feel could be better. Furthermore, I feel that the Highbury Trust and Creative School participants would really enjoy the session!
Emily Pembridge MUS634 