My dilemma on whether I should start this project with my students 🤷. As we only have three sessions for this term. The interval between the second and the last session will be five weeks apart. Although their unfinished projects are usually kept in ziplock bags, they are not entirely airtight. I will still need to open the bags every few days and mist the artwork to keep them moist. But I thought it will be nice if I squeeze in a new technique. After some deliberation, I decided to go ahead and see what happens. The risk is that some of the clay might be too dry to work and they need to redo from scratch. Another possibility is that I'm overzealous in misting the artwork and they will be too wet to work with. 😕
I usually start by showing them the entire process with a time lapse video so I can focus on explaining while pausing the video. I think it's hard to use the visualiser with my dust-coated hands. The projection is also clearer with the video than the live document camera. Stay tune to my update in my next post!
This book was one of our readings back in NIE. It's useful to early career art teachers as it covers a broad spectrum of information relating to art education. The twenty chapters cover topics from children's artistic development to the technicality of school art programmes and organisation. Pages are adorned with beautiful images of children's artworks from various cultural context. Occasionally, I would still browse through the content to check certain facts.
A wonderful thing about a teachers' communal library is that teachers in Singapore can borrow this book from READ@academy. We can put up our request online and the books would be delivered to our school at a designated day. Even though there are books available in the public library but most of the textbooks are under the reference section so reading is limited in the library.
I always thought it was normal...
I have been wearing glasses when I was 10. When I was in primary school, I had always envied my classmates who wore glasses (sigh) and I would often "borrow" theirs to put on. So, my wish was granted when I couldn't really see what my teacher wrote on the whiteboard and the school nurse sent a letter home asking my parents to have my eyes checked. I don't know if wearing people's glasses would worsen my otherwise 20/20 vision but it's definitely not due to doing desk work nor having any screens to stare at.
Besides being short-sighted, I have astigmatism. I'm too chicken to go for Lasik or deal with its side effects so I have to make do with glasses. It wasn't until years ago that I discovered that people who have astigmatism view night vision differently. Both my parents need not wear glasses so I had to explain to them what I see and it was especially uncomfortable driving at night. The glare from other vehicles create halos and the lights radiating from each headlight/ street lamps make it hard for me to focus. Sometimes, I even need to squint to read the LED road signs.
If we see everything through our lens, then mutual understanding would not come easily. That means all the more we need to seek first to understand than to be understood. This comes to my point about discussing perspectives in class. I showed some optical illusion artworks that could potentially mess with their perspectives due to preconceived ideas and using that as a common experience for class discussion. If you read this news about vulnerable children unconsciously or maybe consciously spending real cash on virtual games, then I suppose the game developer truly understood the targeted market/ players well to enable the consumers to part with their money willingly. Not all mode of payment require the use of credit cards, I know students who purchased cards from 7-11 stores because they wanted to unlock achievement levels or acquire accessories in the game.
In the case of the gaming industry, they sure make a point to practise empathy so they can achieve their intended outcomes.
It's coming to the end of term 3 and the children's ceramics work are fresh off the kiln! There is a lot of anticipation when it comes to ceramics class. In every step of the process, nothing is guaranteed. Things could happen during firing that resulted in failure of pieces which could only be thrown away (so far, nothing like that yet) or it's not even your fault but because the pieces are placed close together, you can't prevent an accident, just cause and effect.
In every lesson, the children learnt from other children's work and we discussed about the good, bad and ugly. Everyone need to work together to make the lesson happen. The glazes doesn't fill themselves up. Someone has to wedge the recycle clay and ensure it's kept and mist properly. Someone has to plan the schedule to fire and reload the kiln. So, they need to know the work behind the scenes that they won't need to do and all teachers ask for is that they bring a good attitude to class and enjoy.
Hi teachers! I've been collecting my lesson resources and teachers' samples over the years and keeping them in envelopes like these in the resource room. I think it's essential to accumulate more resources and refine them for future use. Keeping them in opaque envelope would preserve the original colours of the painting. I have some samples of string art and watercolour painting for future reference. It's also useful to prepare simple activities for relief teachers in case there is a need.
To prepare for our mouse paint art, the children will be making three mice on their art piece. It looks very cute given the interactive element. They watched the video and begin their work. Tearing the papers instead of cutting them gave it an uneven finish. I certainly did not anticipate that any of them would tell me it's too difficult to tear the drawing papers! Perhaps they are too afraid to tear the papers or displeasure associated with tearing papers??
How do you recycle the leftover clay from previous classes? In our class, the children place their remaining clay pieces into a black bag and I pour some water to soften the clay. After accumulating them for a few sessions, they would be soft to knead and wedge. Wedging the clay would prepare it ready for use by eliminating air bubbles and ensure a consistent texture. They would be packed into balls of clay right into the black bag again, sprinkled with some water to maintain moisture.
