Housekeeping: Cleaning watercolour cake paint set

Reusing these watercolour paint set means getting them ready for the new cohort of students. The most efficient way of cleaning them is to put them under running water which I never recommend children to do until these sets get really dirty. I usually ask the children if they ever wash their ice cream and if they don't, then they really don't want to wash their watercolour sets. 

Housekeeping: Repurpose cardboard egg tray

The cardboard egg tray is perfect for holding paint, especially acrylic paint. The children would throw them away by the end of the class to minimise washing time and make more time for learning and making. Here's a video showing how to prepare them for use:

Art Class: Yarn and Burlap

It's quite amazing after four years in my current school, I'm still finding a use for materials purchased ages ago. I won't bat an eyelid even if the materials are older than me! I'm trialling this lesson unit so that the graduating classes can pick up sewing and increase their dexterity. I mean their school shoes are tightened with velcro, not shoelace anymore. Something that I've taken for granted is the tying of knots, it is not a given for some twelve years old. Tying a double knot at the end of the yarn is the foundation and toughest for most of them as it requires the second knot to sit on the first one to prevent the yarn from pulling through the burlap. A single knot would be sufficient if the yarn is much thicker. Since I'm making do with what I have, it is good enough too. 

I showed some published articles to the children about the claim that surgery students are losing dexterity to do stitching and this video even show how medical students in a Japanese hospital are put through origami making to recruit surgical students. You can view it here. 

Art Class: Where are you from? (Part II)

Phew! The children ended their term one task with a gallery walk (in circles). Many opportunities for making decisions are provided to allow them to build their confidence. For example, I will usually go through a set of instructions before their independent work and that requires active listening. So, in the event that they'd forgotten after I've given my instructions, they could ask a trainee teacher. The children made choices on their line drawings, selection of art supplies, their seating area or who they would like to sit with on that day. Classroom management includes scissors safety and their movement in the art room. These are seemingly simple tasks to an adult but they require a substantial amount of time to complete. Especially so when the students were writing their artist statements and needed spelling words.

Artventures: aedge 2019 art exhibition

A delayed post! It has been a month since the exhibition opening day on 5 March. I was one of the teacher-curators for the art educators' developmental and explorations (aedge 2019) exhibition. It was held in the art gallery of the School of the Arts, Singapore.

It was an intensive business and we had our meetings mostly in the evenings. Most of our communication was taken online and well aware of our responsibilities or at least complement each other. I was the only primary school art teacher so it was nice to hear different perspectives. I wouldn't think of swapping places with them when children's explorations are more fun and crazy (rest assured your kids are safe with me). I would also definitely miss the funny questions.

From the theme of the exhibition, Time & space, we gathered 3 sub-themes so that we could organise the selected body of work under each strand and we could have private communication with the artists whose work are placed under the sub-themes.

During this period, I pored over books to help me understand the concept of curating as much as possible:

• Rethinking curating: art after new media / Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook
• Ways of curating / Hans Ulrich Obrist with Asad Raza
• Curationism: how curating took over the art world and everything else / David Balzer

Curators build bridges in gaps between artists, the public, institutions and other types of communities. By building temporary communities and connecting people and practices, they also create conditions for triggering future collaborations and projects.

I'm thankful to be part of this experience and being able to learn so much from everyone in the team.

📷: Dorathy

📷: Amanda

📷: STAR

Housekeeping: Artwork Display

My colleague, Faiz, has nicely set up the projector so I could fix the hold-up display rails accurately! These rails would allow students to display and remove their works very quickly. A gallery walk can be conducted or art appreciation talk in the midst of the artmaking process.