Basic colours
Week 3:
Beginning from previous weeks, I have been co-teaching, preparing mostly to moving a step forward. The topics that I have covered with them in the earlier stages is drawing basic shapes such as sphere, cylinder, cone and a cube. Also I tend to emphasise during the activity is to remember that to make a drawing less flat and that we are creating an illusion of 3D. They worked on the toning as well learning various methods to creating shades with the pencil- 2B to 6B. They had learned to draw basic shapes which leads into creating a figure of their own. Just looking on this first stage of exercise with them, I was informed to always expect the highest which took some time to adjust as I had thought, being as young as they are, lacking the knowledge that one can't expect them to already have. However, I felt that along the way, with encouraging and some guidance, the potential was starting to reveal in their work.
This week, with the traditional transition of discipline focusing on foundational skills, I chose to bring forth the lesson to colours. The basic concept involves primary and secondary colours. Of course when I shared briefly of what they will be doing and it was noticeable in the enthusiasm the pupils have which surprised me that I too, felt the rush of excitement. I supposed it had become boring and repetitive in drawing basic shapes and using of oil pastels for the series of lessons.
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| sketchbook notes 1 |
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| 2 |
This time, finally the moment has had to come, the idea of me handling a class all to myself was somehow more nerve wrecking than having my coop teacher in the room. I guessed I am more aware of the things I need to be saying and constantly remember what I must achieve like a checklist in my head. It had felt like a test. However, calmly, after she had already established my name and presence, I went about it like a workshop tutorial. What I have learned during every step of conducting the lesson, not only do I need to emphasize a lot on the key words, building their literacy skills and art terminology knowledge such as Proportions, Cast Shadows, Depth or Volume. First and foremost I needed to connect with them. I found it very important to create the situation where everyone can connect, engage and respond to the subject. And good learning outcomes involve a lot of self-evaluation which the coop teacher had shown me a way she had done it. Almost in an informal way, asking all pupils to stand up walking around the class and give a quick evaluation of other's works. That was effective, quick, not time consuming and they are inspired by their classmates that have done it differently despite being given the same task.
Week 4
This is the time when the practice of writing lesson plans has yet to begun, the coop teacher was not present and I was not informed of any plans for that day. Eventually, found a note with brief idea of things to focused on and that is-How To Draw A Portrait(face). A brief sketch with considerations of Halloween that was coming up then.
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| Demo 1 |
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| Demo 2 |
Week 5
At this stage, I was already comfortable in the presence of a class. That was the easy part. Secondly, it's the quality of engagement with the pupils. Putting questions out there before beginning the demonstration for example: 'What does a witch look like?', 'What kind of features do they have?' ,What do you think the skin color should be?' I learned that from another art teacher who has the habit of getting the children to brainstorm, sharing opinions and perspective on what certain things look like. Next interesting thing was by initiating to ask for volunteers among the pupils which I think is an effective way of allowing the rest to engage better because, they are able to relate more to their classmates(peers learning).
Week 6
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| Sharing other first years' class demo | studies of expressions |
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| students' works |
Having had spent almost two weeks, one double each on the faces of their witches, working on the expressions that they want to convey and other details leading into completion. The challenge throughout this particular lesson was having a fair judgement in what was good or bad. In my experience through different disciplines, there were critiques sessions with feedbacks from others. In this case, they had enjoyed the process but unsure on what a finishing work should look like which was interesting. Subconsciously, they also had doubts and wondered what 'perfect' in artworks meant. Having had only few experiences with much younger children, I had learnt to be generous and genuine with compliments and encouragement because the focus I their learning is not about the end product but the process. For example, I would say, "That was really well done, with the shading but I think maybe if you could add a little more...." They tend to take a second look and sometimes, agreeing to the rooms for improving. At the later part, most of them wanted to be done with it and dependently rely on me for confirmation if they are done or not. Therefore, I would question them, “Do you think you’re done? And why?” All of them see things differently and from their answers and how they responded could tell me what they think is complete or what they think is the destination of what they their goal is.
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| stylisation/personalisation |
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| beginning stage of demo for collage hat |
Week 8
It is not only the week before the mid term holiday commenced, it was the busiest as the pupils would be needing to complete their works before Halloween. I felt the pressure needing to urge the pupils and help them fasten their pace of working in order to finish within the two double period lessons however, not neglecting their enjoyment in class.
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| Small demo of a hat focused-tones and complimentary colours |
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| [ABOVE]Alongside my demon(right), I brought it other class's works as visual aids |
*week 7: school closed (hurricane)
Overall, I felt that this is a good class but there are rooms to improve in terms of time management. Sometimes, my estimation of timing could lead them to cleaning up when there were only three minutes left. I know now it is better to give them ample of time to clean up as they can move slow sometimes as it is the pupil's responsibility and my role to help them build this good habit. Besides that, I thought the transition of each lesson was smooth enough, not only because it wasn't too complicated a topic to teach or one that requires a lot of material as they are linking topics that helped them progress into making a witch poster for Halloween without difficulties. When applying differentiation, I had found that difficult initially because most of them were doing the same. Or so I thought. It was until I really got to know them better individually as I would usually go around the room, having a brief discussion with all of them. Knowing their names was the difficult part because later on, the significant strengths or weakness that the pupils presented in class was what helped me remember how I shall approached them individually with different questions. How I would enhanced the quality of learning and teaching in class is to try out various creative questioning or conduct a short quiz in helping them remember what they had learnt but to also create a situation where they would be interested in participating and engaging with the topic.
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