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My last week of school placement as part of the PME course. It was an odd feeling to finish my placement in this way, as the online lessons felt less connected than in classroom lessons.
This week, I asked learners to submit their final work for presentation for an online display of their work.
‘Moment in Time’ self portrait exhibition by 5th years using Padlet.
Still life exhibition by 1st years using Padlet.
I was asked to be a judge for a school wide creative competition this week. I was honoured to be asked to look at, read, listen and watch a brilliant variety of artistic works that were entered from each year group. Finding Joy was the theme of this competition and it was a difficult task to choose between the entries. It was a lovely initiative of the school to ask students to find their joy during the difficult times that they were experiencing during lockdown and school closures.
On Tuesday the 26th of January, I attended an online talk by Bernard McHale, Head of Leadership for the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) in association with the Art Teachers Association of Ireland (ATAI) about leadership opportunities in Post-primary Schools. It was very interesting to hear a variety of ideas about leadership and creativity in schools and it was said that ‘successful school leaders balance tasks and people’.
Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It’s about one life influencing another. — John C. Maxwell.
My first week of teaching online was really interesting and I certainly learned a lot about how my students would use the available technology and how I would use the technology available to me.
I made a series of video presentations and demonstrations that students would be directed to for a class, and that they could refer to in their own time.
I used a combination of meeting my classes online and assigning work for a class. It was important to not have students sat in front of a laptop all day long, and to ensure they had adequate time to work on their art work. This week was a real learning curve and I realised that students would not get through the amount of content I was providing within the time allowed.
A still from a video demonstration about value and shading, which students could refer to during class and in their own time.
This week I reviewed and reflected on my planning to date. There were a number of areas that needed reconsidering now that the projects were up and running and I knew the class groups a little better. With my fifth year group I felt that I had pitched the project a little high, that it was too challenging for a second-level group, given the time limits. The project is making a Zine based on the theme ‘the power of words’ with an underlying focus on the Sustainable Development Goal, Reduced Inequalities. It became clear in the third or fourth lesson that I needed to make the project more personal for the students to get them more engaged. I asked the class to consider their values and their personal qualities through a questionnaire, I then asked them to describe a time that they had experienced a small act of kindness. This questionnaire sparked a class discussion which was a good way of exploring the theme a little more.
I will bring the discussion into the next class and ensure that every student has a solid idea for their Zine. One of the students in the 5th year class shows very little interest and I am keen to steer him towards something he will engage with. My host teacher mentioned basketball so I will ask him to write down all the words he associates with basketball and ask him to work from there.
I found that evaluating students work during the class was effective. One of the positive things to come from Covid-19 restrictions is the reduced class sizes. This allows for more one-to-one feedback and discussion.
This week I was settled in a little more and was getting to know the pupils a little better. I focused on the projects getting started and managing materials for each project.
Testing materials
For each of the projects with my classes, this was a week for material exploration and learning. It gave me a chance to see the skill levels of the students with the chosen materials and to figure out the way in which the art room functioned in regards to materials management and storage.
My 5th year group work on text based studies, I provided the text and it was clear that the online system which I used to communicate with them was not one they used often. I have to ensure that the materials and instructions I provide are put in the appropriate place online for students to access or review.
The first week of school placement was focused on getting to know my new students and becoming familiar with the Covid-19 restrictions in the art room.
Getting to know the students
For my 1st year and 5th year class groups I welcomed them to my lessons by introducing myself and asking them to create a personal mind map, where they were the central figure. Their interests and personality or family traits would be drawn or written around them. This task was successful, though some students did struggle to think about what they liked or what to include in their mind map.
My 5th year group are doing a project which will culminate in the production of a Zine, so I decided that the first class with them would involve making a Mini-Me-Zine, they would make a zine from an A4 piece of paper and add information about themselves on each page. This would demonstrate to me the skill level of the students, the speed at which they worked and give them a lead in to the project and an understanding of the format which was new to them all. This worked out as a very enjoyable task for the class, and I extended the task into the second class as I had underestimated the time they would want to spend on it.
The restrictions in the art room due to Covid-19 are somewhat restrictive, in terms of time and materials management. Students cannot share their materials, a question that arose on a number of occasions. I think the real difficulty will be found in the one to one support of a student. I am used to finding materials, support studies or interesting articles for students and being able to share them in the hope that they might be useful or interesting. This cannot happen in the same casual way as before. Though it is of course possible to email the information instead through the school system.
All in all it was a successful week of settling in to a new school and I am confident that the restrictions in place are easy enough to work within.
Creating work, hanging it, testing it, curating it, writing about it. @changelab2020 has been a super full-on part of the PME programme at @ncad_education . Our class nearly missed out on this aspect of the course(due to happen in March 2020) but luckily it went ahead this month instead.
This is the last week of project and we're close to the end which concludes with our display of work and presentation. Our group looked at Cancel Culture and the question, 'does cancel culture kill free speech?' What a rabbit hole of information that was. So current, interesting and shocking.
There will be a website exhibition from which you can explore our work and that of our fellow classmates. I'll post a link when it launches.
#changelab2020 @ncad_dublin #ncad #education #thefuture #learners #curiosity #freespeech #artisteducator
Schools in Ireland temporarily closed due to Covid-19 on the 12th of March 2020. It was my second last day of teaching practice for my first year of the PME. It was a relief to have finished my placement but it left me wondering what was going to happen for my students. How would they adjust to the new online learning.
