Art Club: Artist & Citizenship

Last year, we had the middle-grade Art Club students doing stop motion videos. They could decide their own theme and develop their own storyboards. Their parents were given the links so that they could enjoy viewing the work. You can click here to view.

The students were regrouped this year so that their groups consists of at least one Primary 5 and 6 student each. The aim is for cross-level collaboration and learning. They can learn to create stop motion video and ceramics from each other this year.

P4 students in 2018

P4 students in 2018

The students were given a theme this year and they contributed words associated with Citizenship. Besides that, they selected and justified the picture cards that were also linked to the theme. The students also watched a series of CCE video about Citizenship on OPAL. 

The cards act as conversation starters for students to delve further into group discussion. They were tasked to map out their storyboards following the theme.

In January, I had my A4G fellowship programme second webinar by UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP). We discussed Target 4.7 - Sustainable development and global citizenship. There was a reading list shared with us:

1.	UNESCO MGIEP’s Policy Brief on Rethinking Schooling which looks at how ideals of SDG 4.7 are embodied in policies and curricula across 22 Asian countries. This policy brief is based on UNESCO MGIEP’s Publication called “Rethinking Schooling for 21st century: The State of Education for Peace, Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Asia”
2.	UNESCO MGIEP’s bi-annual publication called “The Blue Dot” – its sixth edition titled “Rewiring the Brain to be Future Ready” focussing how 21st century skills such as empathy, compassion, mindfulness and critical inquiry can be integrated in education systems towards developing peaceful and sustainable societies
3.	UNESCO MGIEP’s Working Paper called “Can Education Promote Peace” authored by Prof. Krishna Kumar, Former Director  National Council of Educational Research and Training
4.	Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning (SEE)Framework from Emory University which explains the linkages between SDG 4.7 and socio-emotional learning
5.	The United Nations Population Fund Report State of World Population 2016 and State of World Population of 2014 titled “The Power of 1.8 Billion”
6.	List of resources for International Mother Language Day
7.	Youth Solutions Report 2018 from Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)

Artventure: Diving Deeper

Prior to our trip to Chennai, India, for the Arts for Good Fellowship Programme, our homework was to explore the purpose of our work. We were introduced to the ‘golden circle’ exercise developed and popularised by Simon Sinek, Author of Start With Why. This sharing session is facilitated by one of the fellows, Brydie-Leigh Bartleet. 

I displayed the organisation's purpose that I work in and mine to show the alignment between teachers and the organisation. 

We spent some time doing a gallery walk and leaving responses on post-its for others on their golden circle. Then. we stood in a circle and explain the purpose(s) of our work. The person next to us will need to reiterate and paraphrase what we had said before moving to his/ her own purpose(s).  

No prize for guessing which is mine.

Getting to Know About Our Practice and Motivations Exercise

Rather than simply sharing WHAT we do as arts facilitators, programmers, educators, researchers and policymakers, and HOW our Organisations/

programs/projects do it, in this session we’re aiming to have a deeper 

exchange. We’re going to share the WHY of what we do, in order to understand 

the real purpose behind our work:

a) WHAT your arts for good program, practice or organisation does. List as many things as you like.

b) In the next circle, list HOW you achieve the things in the outer circle.

c) The final circle, the one in the middle, addresses the question: WHY do I do these things?

And here’s the challenge: there can only be one WHY.

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.