Task 3b: Theories Relating to Networking

Of all the readers so far, I found this one the most difficult to get comfortable with. There are a lot of quite heavy concepts to process. This is what has resulted from me muddling through the theories, let me know what you think.

Task 3b: Theories Relating to Networking

Task 3a: Current Networks

This task is an extremely interesting one for me, because of my recent transition from “dancer” to “dance teacher”. Initially, I thought the way I network as a teacher was completely different to the way I used to network as a dancer, but in actual fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. I am currently working as a freelance teacher, and therefore finding teaching work is not that dissimilar from finding dance work. Only the other day I taught an “audition” class, i.e I taught a class for an organisation as a way of auditioning to become a regular teacher. I obtained this audition through another teacher working for said organisation that I knew from another teaching job. So it all works very similar to the dance world itself! I hate to use the overused, cliché phrases, but “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and “being in the right place at the right time” are of course very true.

Currently, my main networking tool is good old fashioned face to face conversation (along with others of course). The reason for this is my current environment. I live in a small town in Yorkshire where a lot of the dance professionals I am currently in contact with are local, and therefore face to face meetings are quite often convenient. Of course, this isn’t always possible and this method of networking is used along side phone calls, emailing, texting and letters. On occasion I will use Facebook too, but as so many others have pointed out, sometimes your facebook profile doesn’t place you in the most professional light!

I have toyed with the idea of creating a website, and definitely plan on getting one at some point in the near future. However, I don’t feel I have enough of a demand for one yet. Strangely though, I keep coming across schools and organisations that either don’t have a website, or have very basic, out of date websites, and it’s a pain. One school in particular that I work for doesn’t have a website at all, and I personally feel the school is constantly held back by this. In this internet oriented world we’re living in, the first port of call when trying to find any service or product is the internet. By removing themselves from that platform, the school is surely missing out on a lot of exposure and business. This doesn’t really apply to me yet, because I’m not yet in the position where potential clients are seeking me out, it’s vice versa. However, once I reach the stage were I am being contacted by potential clients, a website would certainly make me appear more professional and give me a quick and easy way of making a good impression.

Task 2d: Enquiry

Finally I am posting the final task of part 2. It is extremely late due a number of things in both my personal and professional life taking over in the last couple of weeks. It is so difficult sometimes to find time, and as usual everything happened at once and "life" took over. I hope the inhabitants of the blogosphere haven't forgotten me in my absence and I would love to hear your thoughts on my piece.

Task 2d: Enquiry

Task 2c: Reflective Theory

So...I have been obsessing over this task for a very long time. Adesolas recent post spoke about week 6 of study and how we should be careful not to get caught up in creating the "perfect task". This made me realise that this is exactly what I had been doing and so I have finally stopped obsessing over this task and posted it.

It is long, but I am proud of it and enjoyed writing it, because it's shown myself how much I have learnt about Reflective Theory over the past few weeks.

Let me know what you think and please criticise as much as possible! (if you can endure the length!)

Task 2c: Reflective Theory