Art Class: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Part I)

This is my second time trying out the lesson unit for the Primary 5 children. I started the lesson by showing the children some gruesome  emotionally-impactful images caused by our plastic ocean and asking them to discuss what they see using the See-Think-Wonder framework.

Next, we watched the trailer Waste Land (2010) and we discussed about how artists use their skills and knowledge to raise awareness on a marginalized group of people and improve people's standard of living. It's quite impossible for me to hear from everyone in a class of near 40 kids so I had them make their thinking visible in their sketchbook about this issue.

I was really glad when I had a student who told me that his father told him about Rob Greenfield because I was going to show them this video:

Some time last year, pupils from the Art Club visited the Singapore Art Museum and heard a local artist, Tan Zi Xi spoke about her artwork Plastic Ocean responding to the same theme.

When I was conducting this lesson for the very first time, I was very new to the children having been posted to my current school. It was very challenging as the children had a very strong preconceived idea of what art is and they weren't ready to accept such lesson as art lesson. My current cohort of children have been with me for 2 years so I find that they are more receptive in terms of being engaged in art discussion instead of expecting a step-by-step approach to art making all the time. Like Elliot Eisner says, the curriculum is a mind-altering device. Most children accept what they were given, as such, it's important to balance my approach towards art and since we are in a position to make the necessary adjustments needed to suit local circumstances.

Art class: Class Rule

In art class, I give my youngest pupils only 1 rule because it encompasses EVERYTHING. It's quite similar to when asked what my birthday wish was when I was young and I said infinite wishes. Hoping to use them throughout the year. That greed never outgrow in me.

Some people think of children as blank slate or egocentric. At 7 years old, according to Piaget's stages of cognitive development, the children should move away from egocentrism. However, we can't assume that all children would naturally advanced towards the next stage of cognitive development at the same pace. Thus, our job is to support their growth to the next level.

If someone had "forgotten" to return the art materials, I will say, are you being kind to your friends who have to return them for you? If they choose not to wear an apron, I will say, are you being kind to your parents/ caregivers who have to wash or replace your school uniform? If they didn't wash their paintbrushes, I will say, are you being kind to your teacher who have to wash them for you. For the first few lessons, I always direct their attention to the only poster in the art room which I shamelessly printed off the web.

The children experienced a lot of group work during art class within a compressed time so they learn to cooperate and form a team because they will realise that they cannot innovate alone.

Art Class: Building Spaces (Part II)

Part 1 of this post is here if you've missed it.

After the children started to use masking tape to attach the cardboard. I've also showed them 4 different ways of cutting and joining cardboard. The samples are secured onto the wall so that they can use them as reference. It's also important to make them see that we have to begin with the end in mind. For example, I've explained to them that we are not using clear tape because it'll be harder for the paint to stay. Ever since I muttered the word paint, some kids were asking me ARE WE PAINTING TODAY? at every lesson until we actually start painting...

I have other boys who followed him and started inserting the smaller toilet paper tubes into the big ones to make bullets.

"It's a tank"

A secret entrance to the house

"This is how the elevator moves"

"Flying House"

"A special way of locking the bigger rolls by inserting the smaller ones inside"

The last GIF that I've shown has an interesting background. When the children were doing this, I remember thinking that they really shouldn't waste my smaller toilet paper tubes by inserting them inside the bigger ones since they were not going to be seen anyway. At the same time I was also telling myself not to interfere with their work just because I don't have enough tubes. So, can you imagine my internal struggle?

I was really glad that I did suspend judgements about how things are supposed to be and asked for an explanation. He started to show me excitedly about his discovery being able to act as a locking mechanism and I knew that I would never have thought of this. And this was done during the times when the children were not given any adhesive yet. Thus, this encounter reinforces the idea that children are able to think for themselves when given the appropriate tools and opportunities to support their growth.

At this point, I would say my favourite question of the day was from a girl who asked me: Ms Huang, when are you going to start teaching us real art? HA!

PAL: Before PAL.

In 2004, Victor Chan and the Dalai Lama went to Vancouver to give public talks about the need to educate the heart. Then the Dalai Lama Center for Peace + Education was found and it triggered a movement to include Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in schools, By 2013, 90% of schools in British Columbia had such programmes. 

Danial Goleman (2015) A force for good: The Dalai Lama's vision for our world, p. 184. 

In his book, he bases his vision on Science rather than religion. He reasoned that if he offers methods from Buddhism about moral ethics and inner peace (he termed SEL as emotional hygiene) then people might dismiss it as 'just religion' but if science says these methods work, then there will be more openness.

The Dalai Lama says that our existing modern education system is orientated toward materialist values. Therefore, we need an education on inner values to lead a healthy life. He often returns to the idea that the right kind of education will help in solving many world problems from global warming to economic gaps and conflicts.

Perhaps PAL came about because of these. Nevertheless, at least we have an understanding of why we are doing what we need to.

Resources on SEL is here.

Art Class: Reference Books.

Below are some books that were bought as teachers' resources (you don't have to be teaching Art to be reading those). I have yet to read them from cover to cover but I think it's useful to tab some chapters for future reference. Another great resource for borrowing books is from the MOE library read@academy. Just select the books that you want to borrow online and they would deliver them to your school on scheduled days. How convenient!

  

Art Class: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

I decided I was only going to do things for the fun of it and only that afternoon as I was taking lunch some kid threw up a plate in the cafeteria. There was a blue medallion on the plate - the Cornell sign. As the plate came down it wobbled. It seemed to me that the blue thing went round faster than the wobble and I wondered what the relationship was between the two - I was just playing; no importance at all. So I played around with the equations of motion of rotating things and I found out that if the wobble is small the blue thing goes round twice as fast as the wobble. I tried to figure out why that was, just for the fun of it, and this led me to the similar problems in the spin of an electron and that led me back into quantum electrodynamics which is the problem I’d been working on. I continued to play with it in this relaxed fashion and it was like letting a cork out of a bottle. Everything just poured out and in very short order I worked the things out for which I later won the Nobel Prize.

 Richard Feynmann, Nobel Prizewinning Physicist

Above is an excerpt from Feynmann connecting the dots and how he continues to wonder through adulthood. Contrary to people's beliefs, creativity is found only in the Arts. Instead of dedicating it to a discipline, think of it as a behaviour or mindset. To find out more, read a report on Creativity, Culture and Education here.

Sir Ken Robinson speaks about education and creativity. His book Creative Schools expands on the above talk. While some of the ideas are not seemingly applicable immediately, they make a lot of sense as ideas for incubation. If you are also curious about why policies are peppered with rhetoric like innovation, entrepreneurship, 21st century skills then you might be interested in watching the videos or reading the books. He's a very humorous speaker and definitely not a dull moment!

A thought-provoking statement is when Robinson says that 

"as children grow up, we start educating them progressively from the waist up, and then we focus on their heads and slightly to one side..."

He went further to speak about the hierarchy of subjects and within the arts, visual arts and music are usually given higher priority than drama and dance. 

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.