Workshop Evaluation
Wednesday 22nd November 2012
Heronsgate Primary School (Thamesmead)
During the first groups workshop, our workshop plan slightly changed;
Introduction/freeze/name game (Jasmine)
Banana song (Affton)
Pirate game (Sally)
Scene 9 being performed and questions asked (Phil and James)
Frozen images as a group (Leah)
Teaching our song (Toby)
Q and A (Toby)
Having a slight adjusment to our workshop was slightly worrying but it was an experience and meant we all had to really go for it in order for everything to fit in together. Being able to watch the other group perform their workshop was a huge advantage for me; it let me see how the children reacted to different activities and how the group responded to the children. It also was an advantage seeing what worked and what could have been done to improve as it gave us the oppurtunity to improve ours.
When it was our workshop I was excited to work with the children and to see how they reacted to our workshop plan. Running the Pirate Game I felt confident with once I let go and went for it; I feel I explained the game well, letting the children repeat the name of the sides of the boat. However, I do feel I rushed the game and could have done a lot more with and added in extra parts; the children seemed to pick it up quick so I feel they would have had a lot more fun if I added the rest of the signals in. This is something I will remember if I ever run a workshop again.
The use of the “freeze” was helpful; the group of children we had were very excited and like to get involved so by using this technique it enabled us to quiet them down and to get their attension back.
As a company I do not feel we listened to each other and gave the right respect for each other by the end of the workshop; being told we still had 20 minutes left when we had nearly finished, we slightly panicked and was not sure what to do. This resulted in a closing of the workshop, to then opening it back up with the banana song. If we was to run another workshop I would definetly focused on the timing more and slow down with the activities.
However, all in all I really enjoyed running a childrens workshop and would be really interested in trying it out again. It gave me confidence to run a activity.