Sunday, September 23, 2018

Reads: What the art teacher reads

Welcome to a new tab of 'Reads'! This column will serve to record at least a learning point from the books that I've read. These books could be related to the arts or education or anything in between.
Taken from: Winning With Honour by Lim Siong Guan & Joanne Lim, pg. 358
My friend, T, recommended this book. The father and daughter team co-wrote a book that's really easy on the eyes. The layout of the book is such that the left side of a spread is always a summary of the content on its right. The summary consists of mainly bullet points, graphics and bolder fonts. 

The above image of a cycle caught my eyes because my school is big on growth mindset and this graphic is like an extension of the growth mindset for adults. Young children are naturally curious and learning is innate. I think a teacher's role is to channel these curiosities into meaningful ventures. Sometimes, I observed a curious child staring intently at something that caught her/ his interest and the reactions from the accompanied adults. The desire of knowing is so intense that I wonder if adults can sustain that comparable amount of that curiosity. 

That said, learning for adults usually comes with knowing the purpose. I think it's either a push or pull factor. Since people have learnt to be pragmatic, most people have learnt to weigh inputs and outputs. What good would it do to do something that only a few see the benefit in? A transactional mindset. You do something, you expect results. If the results exceed the inputs then it's a bonus. If that bonus results from chance, an accident, then perhaps more effort is invested to see if that bonus can be replicated. If so, it becomes a formula. 

Someone told us that as teachers, we can never be paid enough for what we do. That is true. In the above diagram, I think the most unfortunately domain to reside in is 'unconscious incompetence'. My own interpretation of that is you don't know what you do not know (yet). I guess the point about learning is gradually uncovering what you do not really know yet and not repeating formulas.

In a way, learning is to a large extent associated with self-awareness. Nobody can force you to learn something if you are not keen in mastering a skill. How you learn a skill is also important. For example, it could be self-taught or from someone that you are keen to hear from. Next, to enable learning is to disable ego. To dissipate judgement, fear and ego meant that learning can be achieved in a peaceful manner.  

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Art Class: International Dot Day

It's Dot Day this week! An American teacher started Dot Day on 15 September 2009, he read the story "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds to his classes to encourage creativity, courage and collaboration. It sits well into our first art lesson for the second semester. Our class discussion led children to just make a mark no matter how intimidating a task appears to be as every expert was once a beginner. I also made a time-lapse video to show children the painting process. 







Sunday, September 2, 2018

Art Class: Clay Food II

In my most active class, I had my pupils play a game with the concept similar to weaving patterns. While some pupils held on to the ropes across each other, others had to go over and under the ropes alternately. By including the time element, they treat this as a game and this activity would facilitate my explanation of paper weaving. Some children had the experience of doing paper weaving in kindergarten and they were given the option of cutting wavy lines. I used the time to talk about 'contrast' in their colour choice. 

I discovered that beginning my lesson with a game followed by the lesson outcome usually aids my explanation. It could be due to the movement and fun that the children had experienced which helps them to focus better.







Art Club: Mark Making

Primary Two children did mark making with unconventional materials. They explored different ways to make marks and learnt from observing their friends. I gave them specific instructions not to let paint touch their hands because I know a few will. So if I do allow them to touch the paint, they will probably use their whole arms! Prior to individual work, the children painted on canvas and we had a class discussion by comparing the paintings.













Thursday, August 23, 2018

Art Club: @ Makers Faire

Art Club pupils participated in a Strawbees Challenge at the Makers Faire last week. There were students' prototypes displayed at the perimeters of the booth with some incorporating electronics and recycled materials. I like how the children took initiative to interact with the facilitators whom they are seeing for the first time. This authentic experience of holding a conversation with people beats punching letters on smartphones. They would also need to describe more about their artwork to the judging panel. I'm also very thankful for their parents for making the time and effort to support their children's interest. 













Sunday, August 19, 2018

Art Class: Clay Food I

In tandem with International Dot Day, the children painted paper plates to go with their clay food. As a tuning in, I asked the children to draw me the answers to these questions on post-its:


Food is a great conversation starter. There is always food during celebrations. Be it festive seasons, weddings, birthdays, parties, housewarming or vernissage. There is no lack of intagrammable dishes in images to arouse your appetite. In short, people don't just eat when they are hungry. We are also social eaters unless you are looking for what founder, Marina Van Goor, has designed - Eenmaal, a restaurant only for solo diners. 

I've learnt more about the children through the food that best depicts their culture. It was also interesting to find out about their favourite food and snacks which tell me a lot based on their food choices and lifestyles.   





The children responded very well to images - either digital or printouts. We started by looking at our school location on Google Map and found that many restaurants including fast food eateries are strategically situated near our school. We discussed our favourite food, festive foods and food we need to eat in moderation. There was also a lesson where the children manipulate the clay into specific shapes so that they can experience the colour change and describe the difference in 2D and 3D shapes. We observed the shapes, colours and they did a few sketches.














Sunday, August 12, 2018

Housekeeping: Drawing on Fabric

The process of preparing children's art installation (on fabric) is mostly very calculated. My colleague and I measured the hallway doors, amount of fabric needed, suitability of the quality of the fabric and even sewing. The colour choice of the thread that will complement the fabric has to considered too. We were in luck when our colleague has a hemming machine and she brought it to school to sew! So we were done in no time.