This year has had its ups and downs. A love/hate experience but I know I have gained a great deal. I feel closer to my peers as a result of sharing the journey. I now know much more about myself and how I work. I have gained knowledge of research and experienced how complex planning and executing a project can be. Choral teaching is much harder than it seemed at the outset but I am not deterred. I feel I will seek a post as an accompanist so I can work alongside a director to observe more expertise. I do not yet feel ready to launch myself as a choral director without further training.
Here are some links to pivotal points on my research journey:
Choir Session 1: + audio
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/1st-session-with-the-choir
Focus group:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/focus-group-final-preparations
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/focus-group
Choir Session 2:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/choir-session-help-i-fall
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/2nd-choir-session-review
When researching a topic a lot of reading has to be done to find the right source. Two major technological tools have aided me in this:
The Plextalk linear pocket recorder, see:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/semester-2-week-19
And secondly, the text to speech feature within a mac, see:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-ending-21-march
Other software I have come across and used this year:
Here is another free software for doing simple animated drawings. (add Mikogo)
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/writing-etc
During this project I encountered a few hindrances however these were minor and didn’t result in major modifications of the project.
One pitfall was the delay on my ethics approval after the filling in and submission of the form on the stated deadline on blackboard. The committee didn’t respond with the approval until the beginning of March. That meant I had to push my choir sessions back to the 9th and 30th of March because the choir was booked for an Easter service. See:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/ethics-submission
Another setback I encountered was because I taught in the 1st session the song I had prepared for session 2. This resulted in another song having to be found.
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/march-14th-2015
Here are some examples of where I picked up research items during the project.
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/showcase-research
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/trinity-college-library-dublin
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/march-25th-2015
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/singing-opportunity-chris-bruerton
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/beginning-data-analysis
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/april-13th-2015
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-23
On reflecting:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/reflecting
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/research-collation
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-24-more-on-surveys
Reflection on teaching + audio
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/writing-preparation
Some analysis can be found:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/refining-analysis-presentation
This year has taught me quite a lot about management of time and resources.
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/april-01st-2015
The following list contains posts to do with my tutorials and the resulting actions planned.
Week 19
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/semester-2-week-19
Week 20
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-20
Week 21
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-21
Week 22 (not a tutorial)
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-22
Week 23 (not a tutorial)
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-23
Week 24 (not a tutorial)
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-24-more-on-surveys
Week 25
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-25-interaction
Week 26
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-26
Week 27 (week ending 21st of March)
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/week-ending-21-march
Also:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/beginning-data-analysis
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/writing-again
Tutorial 15/4/15
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/penultimate-tutorial-dissertation-and-showcase
Final tutorial:
http://moaramy.weebly.com/honours-project/final-turorial