Unit X | Educator Key Blog Post 3

From the Educator Unit, I have learnt several things. Some I have gone into depths of researching and some have left me asking questions. Relating this back to my practice, I would say that I have always use the public audience to sell/ aim my work. I still feel the same about why I do this; it brings everyone together and it is not just one person’s work – shared work. I really have enjoyed this Unit as it has allowed me to be myself and learn many things. It has also given me the assurance that this is what I want to do; work with young people.

There are millions of ways of learning and teaching. One specific way that I’ve found a new way of learning is; doodling or playing with practice while listening to someone speak be it a tutor, friend or stranger. From experience, teachers have always told me off for doing these things while they were teaching. Therefore, this is why we were first set to discuss the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ teachers that we had. From research, people discussed that in order to find your ‘teaching style’ you would have to reflect on your own experience and see what worked and what did not.

I hoped that the collaborative work would have been successful however, it was the complete opposite. One out of the three workshops have only been successful where planning as a team worked. I had never experience collaborative work to be let down before so may be this is why I was unable to pick up the pieces and carry on. This is defiantly something that I will need to work on as not everything will out while teaching or giving out a workshop in the future. So what I need to do is have a backup plan at all times. Another skill that needs improving is the idea planning a workshop. I need to adapt lessons to the time limits and abilities of individuals.

At the beginning of the unit, I was unsure about several things about what to after graduating. Now that it has come to the end of the Educator Programme, I feel like I have a set mind on what I want to do, need to do and how to get where I need to be. My ambitions for the future now is to defiantly do several more workshops to get used to the atmosphere and then do a PGCE. What I am still unsure of is what age group I would like to teach in. However, hopefully I get the gist of it in my third year of my degree.

Public Debate. (2016). unknown. Last accessed 12/05/16. Available: https://community.tes.com/threads/how-would-you-deal-with-sen-and-disability-in-the-classroom.733129/#post-11588487  

Unit X | Week Seven 10/05/16

After several attempt to communicate with my group, my group failed to do so. Due to lack of pure laziness and immaturity of the individuals in my group apart from one, no one offered any help what so ever towards our workshop at the school placement. Therefore, we were left to assist another group in their workshop. This experience has left me immensely irritated as me and my friend felt like we had planned a group year 7’s workshop for a whole day ourselves and also that we bought all the materials for no reason. One main issue that had really bothered me was that the others were only concerned about their grades whereas I wanted create memories for the children as chees as it may sound.

Due to this unforeseen circumstance, we were unable to go ahead with our planned workshop. Therefore, we assisted another group and the images below was their outcome.

This workshop was planned for a 16 year 9’s that were skilled in art. The theme for this workshop was about recycling. The planning and timing went really well with this group as they had a team leader who called time and moved everyone around to each station. Their idea was to create a weave with plastic, threads, clothes and dye. Towards the end when they came together, they looked more as dream catchers and some students chose to take their one home.

Unit X | Week 8 12/05/16

So Unit X - Educator programme, we all decided to end it with a workshop welcoming people to come into our studio and make pompoms in the Unit X show! Along with other activities in the room like tower building with marshmallows an stick, blind drawing and the most popular one; throwing darts at balloons filled with paint on a canvas. I feel like this went really well as the planning was effective and everyone felt welcome and comfortable in the workshop. The pompom activity was more of a relaxing and therapeutic exercise and it felt like being a kid again! This is something that I would consider teaching in the future.

 

 

Unit X | Week Six 03/05/16

Last week I requested to work with children with special needs. Therefore, I was placed in three different aged groups who all had different learning abilities; three year 8’s with one teacher, four year 9 student with one teacher. Then I moved to another classroom that consisted of around 20 children with four teachers/ supervisors. Every group was small and compact so that everyone felt comfortable enough to communicate and share ideas however if it was in a larger scaled group, these student would not learn effectively.

This is an image of the lessons that year 7’s were in. the teacher provided materials that were simple but fun to use as the student could eat the marshmallows in the end!

Unit X | Educator Key Blog Post 2

During micro teaching by tutors, this helped me get an idea on how to plan a session even if it was for just 10 mins. My micro teaching experience was daunting at first but as I kept going I felt more comfortable discussing my cultural background with my peers. I feel like the planning form helped a lot because I use this method already in my practice and outside studying. This skill is something that I will carry out in the future. The way I carried out my session was by communicating with my peers while we were learning/ making things, this is also something I feel like my teaching styles may be like.

During my time at Darwin Aldridge Community Academy 'DACA' for placement, a teacher told me that a student ‘X’ felt uncomfortable talking about her learning difficulty which was dyslexia, so she advised me not to bring it up inappropriately. Because I have a learning disability, I felt that I could help or relate to her in some way. So how I approached her was by asking X about her studies. We had a conversation about my decision between wanting to be a paramedic and doing art. I mentioned that I did not know I had dyslexia which explained my ability in reading and writing. I shared a bit of my personal experience relating to what I knew about her by the teacher. X eventually felt comfortable enough to declare that she too had dyslexia. I comforted her and supported her to what she wanted to become; a drama teacher.

At the time of the moth workshop, I feel like I lacked I participation. So from this, I in putted my ideas and thoughts when it came to planning the workshops in the fourth week at DACA. As a team, we managed to cooperate and gather everyone’s ideas together and came up with something educational as well as fun for the year 7’s. This workshop looks like it will be successful as my group have great contact with each other. We are all from different practices; knit, embroidery and art history. So we all have something we can bring to the table and have a great outcome.

During placement in one lesson there was one particular group of girls that were not participating in the lesson and disrupting other student learning. In the room you could feel the frustration the female teacher had felt. However she remained cool, calm and collected. The teacher gave out several warnings which lead to students being sent out to cool down but students continued to mistreat her teaching. So the last resort for the teacher was to take their breaks away. The tutor explained their expectations and how it will affect their future during break. If I was in the teacher’s situation, I would have done the same thing. But how miss managed to compose herself while he girls were laughing continuously is beyond me. This is something that I will defiantly need to work on. From experience, girls would tend to misbehave around female teachers maybe because of jealousy but in front of male teachers, they would concentrate. I would be wrong but this is from a personal view.

Technology is becoming more and more demanding in most jobs these days. I feel like I lack in knowledge in this department. I can easily work with machinery, but when it comes to Photoshop or illustrator it doesn’t click with me. During placement, students were expected to work with technology in lessons, not only with Photoshop but with other technical features such as; cd, mug, 3d printers. So if I want to be an art teacher I would need this knowledge to improve my practice further.

The educator programme has so far given me the best in knowledge of how to approach people with different abilities in education and how to express any ideas or thoughts that I may have. From the child protection session,  I feel like I have a basic understanding on how to communicate with students from different background as my placement in DACA, has allowed me to interact with students that have; learning disabilities or poor background.

Unit X | Week Five 26/04/16

Placement Week 2:

This week’s placement I was observing year 11 in photography. This group was made up of mature students getting on with their work while the teacher ran some errands while being in the classroom. The classroom had a very comfortable vibe as students were able to have conversations relating to the subject in the classroom, the teacher also participated in most of the conversation. Because I have a learning disability, I requested to sit in on a student’s support group that involves different types of learning difficulties.

For the workshop commencing on week 4 of placement, my group planned making masks with a underwater theme. We came up with this theme by combining all the ideas we had come up with individually. Our group is year 7 so we are to prep for their age range and abilities. Artists that we are planning to use as reference are: Jason DeCaires Taylor an underwater sculpture artist and Fiona Banner a Textiles artist.

Fiona Banner

Jason DeCaires Taylor 

Theme:

Unit X | Week Four 19/04/16

Placement Week 1

The first week of placement at Darwin Aldridge Community Academy (DACA) was an interesting experience. With a mixed group of year 7, 8 and 9’s in a day, you could see the abilities and communication teachers and students had with each other. With the year 9’s, the teacher had planned out a seating plan for the 4 groups of year 9’s in the morning before the students arrived so that they could focus on the lesson. The teacher had also laid out the table in a way the group can see each other and communicate.

 

There was one group of year 9’s that were a disruptive than previous groups. The teacher composed herself in a way that the laughter in the classroom died down eventually. Warnings were given to the selected individual and breaks were eventually taken away as a last resort. What I took away from this was that even though teachers are set to work within time limits, not everything will go to plan as things will get in the way and teaching could be delayed. 

Micro teaching

In my micro teaching session, I chose to teach my peers and tutors my mother tongue language, culture, history. I feel like I went about on my timing really well as I didn't include a lot of information as the session was only for 10 mins! However, I feel like I provided enough content so that my peers learnt at least three things from me. What I included was, my language, Bangladeshi history, the meaning behind the flags design/ colours, Bengali writing etc.

My secondary school art teacher used to talk to GCSE students in a manner where we all felt comfortable and that he was one of us. He would gather us around a big table and show examples of how to do the work while talking about things that related to the work and a bit of banter. This made us feel like adults and we felt respected.

So form this experience, I used the method in the micro teaching and I feel like it worked for me, I felt more and more comfortable as the session went on. I also sensed a connection with my peers as they wanted to know more about my cultural background. This then led to me telling personal stories about back home, which I didn't mind sharing!

Unit X | Week Three 15/04/16

This week was about body language and the different types of feedback. Therefore, after watching a presentation by Amy Cuddy | Ted | YouTube | Moodle about body language. We were first set out to do was act out four scenes: teacher with extremely higher control, students with higher roles, equality and reality all within a classroom setting. What I took away from this was that even when we are discussing our stories of body language that our teachers used in school, you could see how people were feeling just by looking at the way they were communicating and listening in the group.

I feel like that body language does not necessarily express ones emotions. For example, I would usually sit down with my arms cross because most of the time I am feeling cold. However, when I give presentations to a group of my peers that I know and to a crowd of strangers, I will tend to stand in one place and not make eye contact to my audience. I feel like these are just some things that I need to work on.

Types of feedback...

Constructive feedback:

Where you guide/tell someone how well or where he/ she could improve on his/ her work. Suggestions could be provided to improve their skills for better results.

One to one:

I feel like this is the best method to use for feedback. It gives both student and teacher to communicate with each other and give the student a chance to ask s questions. It also give them both the opportunity to discuss any hardship outside the subject that they may be facing and what there is out there to help them.

Feedback from peers| good or bad?

From experience, peer group feedback can be useful as you see these people mostly every day and they know more about your work than tutors do because they have seen you making them and your intentions behind it.

Critical feedback:

From experience, this is one of the feedback techniques that I have sworn by not to use myself. I feel like this method degrades a person and their work when they have work hard.

Let them ask questions:

This practise allows not only the students to ask question but also the person giving feedback. This is the most comfortable way to give feedback I think.

Being anonymous:

Personally, I find this method a bit weird even after I have tried it. The person that is receiving the feedback doesn’t really get to say anything whether it be harsh, constructive or kind comment

Do not be direct:

Instead of saying, ‘you did not use any artists for inspiration’. In other words, ‘I would recommend artists research for further findings.’

Written feedback:

This method is more of a one-way system as you get a written report on your work. Sometimes students cannot respond because there are many notes noted down. These are either handed to them on a sheet or through email. This does not give the students a chance to explain themselves or ask what they can do to improve.

Unit X | Educator Key Blog Post 1

From the educator programme so far, I feel that I have taken away so much more information that I thought I would have. I completely understand that not everyone or especially in this case ‘every child’, soaks in information the same way. From experience I found that I take in more information in a lesson if it is a fun lesson with a teacher that speaks on my level. So what I need to research further is what type of charisma I need to express when it comes to my turn of teaching, and also how I'm comfortable teaching to a group of children. I intend to gain this research from future experience in schools.

From the beginning of this year I found out that I had a specific form of learning difficulty which explained loads of unanswered question to why I couldn't take notes in lessons, why I drifted off in lectures, why I couldn't withhold information, why I had difficulty reading on my own. After Brian Frew explained the special needs a child has in learning, he mentioned that special needs doesn't necessarily mean disabled; it just means people that require extra time to understand/ learn. Or that they may need to be taught in a way that suits them. After numerous exercises on different types of learning, my favourite ones have to be the layout of the classroom on how tables and chairs are placed and also the freedom to doodle or make something while the teacher is teaching. Why these? Because I felt comfortable and felt a part of the group, we cold share our thought and ideas clearly.

Reflecting back on the moth making workshop, it was an eye opening experience and also felt like I went back in time to being a kid. The workshop was both enjoyable and a big learning curve to how we can interact with children in different age groups and how the interact with us as ‘teachers’.

During the dry runs before the workshop, as a whole group we demonstrated that we are able to problem solve and work as a team and also support each other. We didn't face to many issues as we had planned out who does what beforehand. When reflecting back on how the dry run went, we gave critical feedback an worked on them so that we can overlook it and avoid any awkward run ins. An example of this would have been that if we had 8 children at a station how would we cope with three captains? We planned that if such thing were to happen, we would take small groups of children each and give them our time and attention instead of a big group of different age groups and understanding.

The workshop turned out as planned with one or two children working at an extremely fast pace. To resolve this I came up of the idea of asking them how they could add other crafts to it and where they would place their moth, either the natural environment or the urban. This gave me a chance to connect with them and make them feel comfortable.

Unit X | Educator Week Two |16/03/16

Working with people with special needs was discussed this week by Brian Frew. the understanding of time and patience required to connect tih these individuals became more cleaer to how they can learn effectively and what the change of being patience can do. after several personal stories shared by Brian, I felt a warm feeling to why these people deserve the same education as us but in a more caring way so that they take in the information in. During the talk, we were given things to play with for example, plasticine, pen, paper, small objects. These were provided for a small exerimne tto see how everyone taked in information in the talk. afterwards, we discussed whether we were distracted or whoich mehtof we preffered; sit and listen or doodle while listening. I feel like I listen better while making something.



Natural Environment

Urban Environment

Turned out that most of the children wanted to place their moth in the natural environment. I think this was because the tree was 3D and that the Urban environment didn't look appealing as it was black and whit and on a flat surface. either way, you could clearly see that the children understood which environment is good and which one is bad.

Unit X | Educator Week Two 14/03/16

Dry run for the moth workshop for children aged from 4 to 11 years.

Moth Making Station

In the Moth making station as a group we prepped the activity so that the children could have a variety of materials to work with, as well as making their moths as their own using various techniques and patterns. After a dry run of pretending to do the workshop, we realised that we weren't paying much attention to the time we were given to make the moths which was 15 minutes for three groups. Therefore we decided to work in smaller groups. My group had 3 members including myself, so that gave us the chance to work closely with 1 to 3 children and give them our attention if needed.

Urban City Station

The Urban City Station was about making an urban environment for the moths to live in. What the goal was, was for the children to draw an area of Manchester that they are familiar with. After feedback from the rest of the group, we agreed that because we are from an textural art background, we could include mark making with unusual objects such as sticks, wheels sponge etc. in the building drawings. I feel like this station was more of an exploration of use of materials and gave the opportunity to be free and messy when it came to drawing.

Natural Environment Station

This station was more controlled by the use of materials, After discussing what needed improving, We agreed to keep the tree brown and that the children could place the moths in the corners or attach the moths with Velcro on the tree.

Unit X | Educator Week One | 11/03/16

This was the first week of educator! What I learnt from this week was…

o   Child protection (a person under the age of 18 is a child)

o   Safeguarding (to make sure the environment we put the children in is a safe place to working, the equipment’s used are safe enough to handle, any high concerns of students should be disclosed to someone higher.)

o   Types of abuse (physical, emotional, neglect and sexual)

o   Disclosures (if a child discloses something to us that is high risk then we should report to our line manager, but reassure the child before they tell you anything and after they tell you what they need to say, you will have to tell someone about it.)

o   My line managers (someone who can take over the matter, after reporting to them I do not need to be involved.)

 

These were just some key points that I took from this week’s sessions. First day of Educator really felt as though I could relate to my peers, because we had similar ideas and thought on ways of teaching and expressing ourselves through storytelling and drawings. Learning about my responsibilities to being a teacher in the future, gave me a boost of confidence when interacting with people.

Icebreakers are often introduced to a group of strangers to make them connect. Therefore, what we were introduced to was the exercise I’m sure; every person took part as a child; not quite sure the name of the game but once you see it, I’m sure you’ll get what I mean!

Meet Dr Content. A special character created by my group in the icebreaker challenge.

15/02/16 Week Seven | Self Initiated

After reviewing my samples in the tutorial, we all agreed that I should defiantly take up dying in the next unit as it help majorly within my colour pallet. as it was too late to learn the process of dying, a friend suggestion the sublimation printer where I can transfer my images onto material. from this I created a few samples as some materials would not print the image clearly.

 

These are my top 10 samples.

 

t

Nearly all of my samples are two sided which I loved creating. so what I have decided for my concept is a room divider. reasons for this is that you would be able to see both sides of the piece and also the option to go full cover or light depending on the chosen material.

08/02/16 Week Six | Self Initiated

For further inspiration, I went to visit the new collection by Tibor Reich at the Whitworth Art Gallery. instantly I noticed that this artist works in columns as my primary images were all lines like this. after further investigation to how detailed his work is, I noticed that he used the same technique. For example, orange background with a black motif on top. Another design would be a black background with an orange motif. This simplicity gave me the thought of how my images also include that technique so why not do that while sampling?

 

The next collection that I came across was this wallpaper collection by several artists combined. what attracted me was that the colours used weren't your typical colours you would see in someone home.

My favourite one would have to be this piece by an artist called Edward Veevers. Why? because the colours used are so complementing to each other and there was also an unusual texture to it.

 

From the visual research, interpreting them through my drawings gave me a boost to making samples. I continued using the structure of panels within my drawings all the way through my samples.

These are my samples; inspired by my visit to the Whitworth.