Reads: What the Art Teacher Reads

  

Sir Ken Robinson is one of my favourite authors when it comes to educational reads. Try watching his TED talks if you are short of time. Although the author comments about the educational system which may be beyond the control of most teachers, to our students, the system is us. There are some changes which teachers could do to make students feel that attending school is worthwhile. For some, being physically present pose no problem but engaging mind, body and heart is something to consider. Rather than think about IF ONLY I HAVE...THEN I WILL...Why not make do with what you have, wherever you are.

Art Club: Welcoming Newbies

Dusting off some old frames and customising their welcome tags. Welcoming our Primary Three/ Four freshies to Art Club!

Art Class: Spaces/ Places

Happy Chinese New Year Eve!

We are starting the new year with an extended space - An Art Gallery cum storage space.

There is high interest generated in the KonMarie bandwagon and I think it isn't the simple the act of packing. In the videos, Marie Kondo always emphasize on the importance of packing as a family. Each family member are encouraged to take responsibility for the well-being of the house. In practice, it is usually the woman who does the domestic chores and keeping everything together. Many of my students have domestic help at home, even with affordable, outsourced help, children should learn basic responsibility of helping out in the household. After all, it is up to the family members to make their house their home. 

When all the burdens fall on one person in the family, relationship is easily strained. There is no need to watch all the episodes to also be aware that cheap fashion caused neurological pleasure and that highlighted an issue of consumerism. 

Indeed, packing the art rooms IS a daunting task (not to mention now that we have 3!) but I'm thankful that many people were involved to make this possible. The original occupants - the language teachers had to vacate the space and move their belongings to another classroom before some renovation can take place. A substantial amount of movement to pack and unpack so we had to do them over a few months. The bulk of the work were completed during the school holidays. The aunties and uncles helped to make way by shifting all the desks and chairs elsewhere. Finally, arrangement had to be made with contractors to put up new lighting and shelves. 

The beneficiary of the new space are the lucky students and their artworks would invade the new place soon.

Art Class: Tree of Life Self Intro

Students' work

This year is my first time teaching graduating students. For a start, I've asked them to introduce themselves through this tree of life activity. It looks like a straightforward activity but it does require students to think deeply because it is a visual metaphor in which a tree represents your life including your past, present and future. You can see an image taken from my fellowship programme. 

From this activity, I could see that the students are influenced by the events happening around them. Even though they are not directly receiving the impact of say troubled times, they are aware of current affairs. The objective of this work is to get them to reveal a part of them that I would perhaps never see in the classroom context. When I'm kept updated of their taste in music or other forms of entertainment, it also helps to inform my lesson development and pitch my instructions in class. For example, a number of them expressed interest in memes and I have an almost perfect plan for blending pop culture and Art. 

Artventure: Girls in Tech 2018

Happy New Year! 1.5 weeks of school just zipped by at the speed of light! Just a few months ago, I was a mentee in Girls in Tech mentorship programme(GITSG) Singapore 2018. GIT was founded by Adriana Gascoigne in San Fran in 2007 and GITSG had its first chapter in Asia.

British philosopher, Alain de Botton says that anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough. This is probably the reason I joined the programme - because it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. It's usually easier to blend in with your own tribe and coming from a non-geeky background, I was asking more questions than having conversations. Their IT-lingo goes along UX/UI, data scientist, data analytics etc. For most of the time besides using language that I had to internally process for 5 seconds, there were common threads within the workplace which I could resonate with. For example, relationship management, HR matters or PD. 

During our first meetup session, we had ice-breaker games and something else that was new for me was the speed networking which we went for separate interviews with 3 different mentors. The shortlisted mentors for us were based on a set of survey which we did prior to the meeting. Then, we had to rank them in order of preference. Before the ranking, the organiser even told us to chose the mentor whom we dislike! I guess it's to get the most of the experience. When we were 'forced' to work with people who are unlike us, it creates friction and opportunities for our growth by struggling to find similarities and complements. 

We were assigned six one-to-one sessions with our mentor and my mentor worked in a multinational organisation based in Singapore. For half a year, we had our sessions and mid-programme check-in and also met and interact with other mentors and mentees. 

One of our activities that I would remember for a long time is 'fly on the wall'. It was so simple yet effective. We started by gathering in a group of 2 mentors (not assigned) and mentees. Each mentee shared a challenge (e.g. work relationship) with the group. Then everyone would clarify with the presenting mentee for a minute. This is followed by the mentee turning her back to everyone (we have the swivel chair) and the rest of them would take turns to discuss the challenge as though the presenting mentee is not present. According to one of the mentees, this exercise is used by UX/ ethnographic researchers for their work. When the presenting mentee had her back turned, she is to be an observer and not maintain eye contact with others to minimise any change in their behaviours.

I was enthralled to be part of the programme. While it has come to a close, I’m glad to discover more about myself. 

Artventure: Fellowship programme 2018/19

Hello friends! I've been involved in the A4G fellowship programme organised by the Singapore International Foundation. The focus this year is on how Arts can be harnessed to empower the youth in our communities. We had a webinar on 31 Oct where the fellows from 10 different time zones participated. The Singapore exchange happened between 20 and 23 Nov and we all met in person. The activities included trips to visit Singapore's Arts and Heritage, Katong and Joo Chiat. I discovered that there is an artist residency at Kim Choo Artiste Residency which I think is quite a brilliant idea! Who would have thought of a Bazhang* business would branch out into an artist residency?

📸: SIF

Ondeh ondeh 📸: SIF

Our Tree of Life assignment. Wonderful interpretation by everyone. 📸: SIF

Learning Journey of Esplanade led by Mr Ravi

At Playeum 📸: SIF

📸: SIF

📸: SIF

Although our days ended at 9.30pm almost everyday, the exchange was energising, spirtual and rigorous. In just four short days, I could see and feel the stoic determination of each. Everyone is positive and hopeful. Since the glocal issues are man-made, then only we can derive the solutions. Since nobody knows everything, it is only by learning to work collaboratively, paying attention and being forgiving that people can develop empathy.

*Bazhang is rice dumping.

Art Class: Misc activity

During the exams, teachers have their timetable suspended and we have a new timetable to follow. Since I'm given the same classes that I'm teaching (just different time/ day), I will explain to the children the reason I'm seeing them twice this week! If I hear them go YAYYYY, then it is good news!

One of the lesson ideas for Primary One children is to get out of the four walls and be a suncatcher. I got them to observe two images. One of which is a child's long shadow and an adult's short shadow and asked them to explain how they think this phenomenon came about. Some of them have the misconception of a taller person would automatically have longer shadows. It's interesting to hear their justifications by comparing and contrasting the images. After looking at some shadow artists' artworks, the children made their own shadows on the projector screen. As the sun is not too deadly at this time of the year, the children took turns by working in pairs to capture their hand shadow at the corridor or the courtyard.