Art Class: Building Spaces (Part I)

The Primary Ones children were given a theme on Space for their artwork this semester. At 7 years old, learning to work well together would definitely be a more important skill than learning what the primary/ secondary colours are.

To begin the unit, the children played Space game - making enclosed space with their bodies. The more adventurous children would try to explore making space with multiple planes (see the boy at the bottom left making a bridge) rather than just standing up and flexing their arms. Each time I beat my drum, they would have to change the kind of space that they have made. This would encourage them to think on their feet (quite literally!) as the speed of their next move would depend on my drum rhythm.

Next, to allow more time for them to incubate their ideas, the children played with different kinds of recycled cardboard (toilet paper rolls, tissue boxes etc) without adhesive first. I usually stopped my lesson 15 min in advance so that I can have a debrief session to talk about their problems when doing group work.

Teamwork is just as important as literacy. Once they have mastered teamwork skills, there'll be nothing they can't do in art class. Wasting some time in the beginning to gain more time in the end should be okay. These children have limited opportunities to work in groups as they have just started primary school this year and are just getting to know their friends. I really had to slow down my lessons to ensure that I spend more time talking to them about the important of relationship management. Groups that worked well together would be asked to share their "secrets" in front of the class. The children have no qualms about speaking in front of their classmates! They are sure better speakers than their art teacher when she was 7! I'm maintaining my class routines and hopefully they will be better listeners in the weeks to come.

After which, the children were tasked to brainstorm on the theme of Space. Some children were very knowledgeable, they could talk about black holes and milky way! If you've noticed, this particular art room has chairs or tables removed to create a space where children are not destined to become table artists. I'm looking forward to observe how the children would have progress in the subsequent weeks.

Housekeeping: What to Look for in a Classroom

Sharing an article by Alfie Kohn on organising the space in the classroom. You can access his article here.

Artventures: Nature School

A few years ago, I had a chance to work in Hokkaido, Japan for a few months and I chose to live with a couple who runs a summer school programme in forest school experience for elementary children. It was very interesting as we had to build facilities using natural resources from scratch prior to the children's arrival. We had to build a sign by stripping tree branches, build an enclosure, obstacle course and a toilet. Natural resources were abundant. The children can observe cicada up close and hold a rhino beetle. They were gathering wood and using real saw responsibly. We walked deep in the woods and my host was teaching them to recognise and pick edible plants. They encourage each other to balance on a log and to cross a stream. The children were well behaved and engaged presumably their tasks were authentic and important to them. 

In contrast, my school has more concrete than nature and it is so clean that I can hardly find a dead leaf on the ground. When we are doing land art or observing leaves close up, I will bring my own plants to class. That said, with limited nature in the environment, we can take advantage of opportunities in the community as the school situated between a hospital and a shopping mall.

To get a glimpse of what nature school is, a film about a forest kindergarten in Zurich is at the end of this post. 

Otoosan teaching the kids about edible wild plants

Kids using the nokogiri. My heart stopped for a nanosecond.

Kids were falling selected trees to build a tent

Securing the ropes

The kids were eating the sansai tempura faster than we can cook!

Housekeeping: Distributing Masking Tape

This is definitely not White on White art but my way of coping with art supplies distribution: pre-cut them and tape them on the wall. Giving out adhesive for 30 kids in a calm manner is possible. It also helps that if you warn them that those masking tape are so sticky that if it gets on your nose and you pull it out, your nose will come along too. They are all growing up too fast, at 7 years old, none of them would take me seriously.

Art class: Festive-related art class

2017 is the year of the Rooster according to the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese New Year (CNY) is a gazetted public holiday. Since it falls on the weekends, the following Monday and Tuesday would be a holiday and a school holiday respectively. To increase pupils' awareness of the cultural festival, the Mother Tongue committee has requested to held an internal red packet design art competition. While the art making is done during art lessons, the form teachers would give an introduction of the tradition to the pupils.

With the festive approaching, many commercial establishments would capitalize on it to promote their own products or services. The newspaper is an accessible and economical resource to show pupils some cultural motifs to aid their artwork. I've chosen advertisement that have some aspects related to the CNY festive. By displaying all of them on the whiteboard allow us to see that the advertisement has a dominant colour - reds. We also discussed about the brilliance of advertisement by drawing a parallel between their product/ service to the festive. 

Since the pupils had only one lesson for this task, I've only skimmed on the surface of using advertisement as a form of communication. Providing the newspaper as a starting point for the pupils allow them to incorporate meaning in their artwork as illustrated in this pupil's artwork below:

Some teachers don't encourage students copying from an "original" source but have you heard of this saying: Originality is undetected plagiarism? While I value meaning making in their art, I would also like to see how they incorporate ideas from different sources and weave them together to create elements that compose a story. In the image on the right, the drawing is done by a pupil whose Mother Tongue is not Chinese. She had difficulty initially but she chose an image that she liked. While there are some similarities between the original source and her work, I think she had taken much effort to create positive and negative space to portray a rooster instead of just tracing from the newspaper image. She has intentionally left out some unnecessary drawings and incorporate a festive banner to frame the Chinese characters that also shows she's not copying mindlessly or racing to complete the task. For that, her work is one of those selected for class discussion.

Art Class: Aims of Art Education

The aims of Art Education according to the MOE Art Syllabus 2009 is "to enable every child to be visually literate and to appreciate art". If you look at the syllabus here (p. 5), there is a brief explanation of visually literate and appreciate art. In addition, the MOE English syllabus 2010 also has similar intent (p. 131). I will attempt to construct what visually literate is with examples in my own words.

Once during recess, I saw a Primary 3 girl buying only a few snacks. I made a causal remark about how little food she was eating. I expected her response to be something along the line about not feeling hungry but instead she said she wanted to lose weight. Flabbergasted, I asked her for the reason for wanting to lose weight. She was tall for her age but definitely not overweight. She said she couldn't fit in some of her clothes. After explaining growth spurts and suggesting that she can choose healthier food instead of restricting her food intake which might lead to malnutrition, she seems to be convinced.

It's probably too early for a 9 year old child to worry about body image. However, it's no wonder that they do so especially when we are bombarded with images in our environment. We have the media to tell girls what to wear or how to look, check out the internet or magazines which is easily accessible to teach girls how to wear makeup or perhaps trying to convince girls that being beautiful means you have to be skinny and fair. For example, below is a photo that I've taken on the MRT. It's an advertisement about a skincare product (I've pixelated the brand so I won't get sued) that emphasized about its ability to achieve "instantly 4 times fairer skin that keeps getting fairer*". Note the asterisk that comes with a small print at the bottom that probably states result may vary depending on individual skin types. 

Sometimes, it is also common to see advertisement featuring lingerie-clad models at the bus stops. These models who are featured are usually slim-built and fair. Girls learn indirectly from these sources that their appearances are more important than how smart or hardworking they are and many girls of colour have little hope of ever measuring up to the cultural standard. 

The film industry are aware of their impact on children. The classic Disney movies have moved from portraying women as a damsel in distress (e.g. sleeping beauty) to being more feminist such as the movies in Mulan and Brave.

It's also relevant to think about the societal messages to young children in the context of a patriarchal system. 

As a teacher, I think it's important that I know what my pupils are learning and not learning both from the outside and inside of a sanctioned educational institution. When children are more critical of images or information presented to them, they will become better-informed consumers. 

Art Class: Teacher as Gardener

I liken my work as a gardener. The photos below are my sunflowers (left) and my seedlings in different stages of growth. I have a variety of plants at my corridor and I use them for teaching, as food or just for leisure. Sometimes, I think of how being a teacher is very much similar to growing plants. :D

It's all about providing conditions for children to do their own thing.

When I sow the sunflower seed in the soil, I know I will get a sunflower eventually and not a lettuce, provided I can provide the necessary conditions for it to grow. I can't force the sunflower to grow by attaching yellow petals or thickening its stem. It will grow if the conditions are right. 

As the name suggests, sunflower needs a lot of sun, so I elevate the pot just to maximise its chance of catching most of the light. I have to be sensitive to the colour of the soil. When the soil shows a lighter colour, it means that it's dry and time to water. However, I can't overwater the sunflower, otherwise the roots will be submerged perpetually in water and prone to root rot and the plant will not thrive. I have to fertilizer the sunflower when it's closer to blooming period so that it will have more energy to produce seeds. I can't fertilizer too much either because it's contained in a pot and over fertilizing it will burn the roots and the plant will not thrive too.

In the photo on the right, the sunflower seedlings are obviously weaker. They are placed at my corridor too but in a shadier location. They can grow but they struggle to reach the light and since most of their energy are devoted to reaching the light, their stem become tall and lanky and they will probably not grow to their full potential and will be a sunflower that produce small flower without seeds. 

As a teacher, the conditions that we can provide for any students would at least be delivering quality lessons to our best capacity. In my school, I'm thankful to have autonomy to do things that I enjoy. According to Sir Ken Robinson, the most basic level in education is to create conditions in which students will want and be able to learn. He also explained on the art of teaching and followed by implications for leadership and school culture and the role of policymakers.

When I purchase planting seeds, it usually comes with a basic set of planting instructions on the packaging. Their life cycle is not too long and they don't take a long time to reach maturity. Babies doesn't come with instruction manuals and it needs 21 years to reach maturity (maybe longer for some people), I guess we humans have a lot of work to do.