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Integrated Arts Week 5

In today’s visual arts workshop it was a continuation on from last weeks Windows in the West a painting by Avril Paton (Paton 1993). Using the prints made last week we photocopied a picture of our best prints. Using the photocopy of out prints we then drew on continuing of the picture about the area … Continue reading Integrated Arts Week 5 →

Using the photocopy of out prints we then drew on continuing of the picture about the area surrounding of the tenement flat and snowy weather, which inspired Paton to create this painting.

Through each stage we had to add more detail using a variety of colours and shading with the use of light and dark colours. Showing the effects of different colours and shades.

While continuing on with our printmaking we looked at ‘Room 13’ this is a project in a school. This an art room where pupils are allowed to go and freely express oneself. Working on projects or activities that interest them.

In the music workshop we were in the mac lab using the computer to make music online. This was something I was anxious as I was very unsure how to create music on a mac computer but let us use different forms of media to create music. The online programme used for this workshop was called ‘Garage Band” introduced by the lecturer to create backing music. Throughout this workshop we familarised ourselves with ‘Garage Band’ on the mac computers creating different pieces of music using different instruments, rhythms, volumes, speed and keys throughout the music we created.

Print Making could be done as a class activity linked to topic work such as the Europe, using famous landmarks to make prints on and display through the class as well as school. Using technology to make music could also be a class activity to make a CD or album of schools made by the pupils to raise money.

Reference List:

Paton, A. (1993) Windows in the West. [Watercolours on paper 48” x 60”] Glasgow. [Online] Available: https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west [Accessed: 3 October 2017]

Paton, A. (2017) Windows in the West. [Online] Available: https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west [Accessed: 3 October 2017]

Gibb, C. (2012) Room 13: The Movement and International Network [Online] Available at: http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/109358/mod_resource/content/1/Room%2013-%20Claire%20Gibb.pdf [Accessed 8^th October 2017]

Week 4 – Drama and Visual Arts 3/10/17

In our drama workshop, we began by discussing our own experiences with drama as a learner and our thoughts on teaching the subject as future teachers. The general consensus was […]

In our drama workshop, we began by discussing our own experiences with drama as a learner and our thoughts on teaching the subject as future teachers. The general consensus was negative and most people found the thought of teaching drama daunting. However, we were open to learning and improving our confidence.

We explored techniques including teacher in role and freeze frame. I found the first technique – teacher in role – very useful. This is when the teacher can use a prop such as a hat to show the pupils that they are no longer a teacher as such but now an actor. We related the techniques to a story of a dragon flying above a village and acted out our adaptations of a particular scene using the freeze frame technique. Having looked over the Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts experiences and outcomes it was clear to see how the class how the workshop could be replicated in a classroom and tie in with relevant framework. For example, “I enjoy creating, choosing and accepting roles, using movement, expression and voice” EXA 1-12a.

During our morning lecture, we were given a copy of the watercolour painting ‘Windows in the West’ by the Scottish artist – Avril Paton. In our visual art input, we used this painting and a piece of polystyrene to copy a section of the paining. Next, we folded four different colours of A4 paper, covered our polystyrene tracing in paint before printing it on to each sheet of coloured paper. Once complete, we altered our original copy by removing sections of the polystyrene. We then used a second colour and reprinted onto each sheet of paper again. The fact that everybody’s drawing was different could reflect on Eisner’s (2002) 10 Lessons the Arts Teach. One lesson would be that the arts celebrate a variety of perspectives and the other being that there is no wrong answer, only a number of solutions. Below are pictures of Avril Paton’s “Windows in the West” as well as the process of creating my prints.

I found this activity enjoyable but think if it was to be replicated in a classroom environment it would best be covered over multiple lessons as it is messy and would be difficult for primary school aged children to do in a single lesson.

REFERENCES

Eisner, E. W. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. London: Yale University Press.

Scottish Government (2017). Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts. [Online]. Accessible: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed: 5 October 2017].

Integrated Arts Blog

During todays lecture and impute on integrated arts we looked into the visual arts and in particular a painting by Avril Paton – Window’s in the West (1993). Researching this painting I was able to find out that the painting was bought for the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art and is now being displayed at the Kelvingrove Art and Gallery Museum. I also found out that the painting took 6 months to complete and was completed using watercolours. In this lecture we looked at how we could link literacy with art in the classroom.

In the first seminar we were handed out polistyrine boards where we then traced one section of the painting in great detail onto to the polystyrene board and used this to make several prints of it.

After drawing out the painting we put a layer of paint over the top and pressed it onto a sheet of A4 coloured paper to make a print.

We continued to do this, putting different colours of paint over the top and using to make prints.

As a teacher in training, I feel that it is important to link art with subjects such as literacy, and I feel that this task does that perfectly. The children could draw a picture of the main scene in a novel or create their own piece of writing with a picture to go with it and use this printing technique as a way of expressing that picture. The Tallis pedagogy wheel shows me that it is important for the children to be imaginative and creative in their work and to be able to work in the state of the unknown.

Overall I feel that this weeks impute was very beneficial as it has given me a task I could use in a classroom to help connect the visual arts with different subjects.

References

Thomas Tallis School. (2017) The TALLIS Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html [Accessed: 5th October2017]

Paton, A. (2017) Windows in the West. [Online] Available: https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west [Accessed: 5th October 2017]

Learning log 2- Climate Change

Independent Study Task: The Skill of Questioning

For our advance reading independent study task we were given a chapter regarding the skill of questioning. I found this extract extremely interesting and gave me a insight into the importance of questioning. The main aim of the chapter was to inform the reader of the different types of questions and their importance in society …

Continue reading “Independent Study Task: The Skill of Questioning”

For our advance reading independent study task we were given a chapter regarding the skill of questioning. I found this extract extremely interesting and gave me a insight into the importance of questioning. The main aim of the chapter was to inform the reader of the different types of questions and their importance in society and communication as it is regarded as a fundamental part; without questions communication is unstable.

Within this chapter the theme of Purpose of questions section grasped my attention. It explained and introduced many different aspects of questioning which I had never even considered such as not only to obtain knowledge from the answer but to also ensure that the interaction between people is there as asking questions in a classroom setting allows interaction between the teacher and pupil, ensuring that the pupil is aware of the topic.

Furthermore there were a few words and phrases that I wasn’t perhaps fully aware of the meaning of so through looking through a dictionary I was able to find out the meaning of the words, allowing me to initiate a fuller understanding of the text as a whole.

I found this chapter very helpful as I gained a great understanding of the skill of questioning and will be sure to refer back to this knowledge when exploring my own ways of teaching.

Skills of Questioning

For my independent task, I was asked to read a chapter about the skills of questioning. The main aim of this chapter was to show off the importance of questioning in our communication and why we need to use questions in order to communicate. There are many themes throughout this chapter. However, the themes that … Continue reading Skills of Questioning →

In this chapter, it tells us clearly how questions work and why we need to use them throughout our language and in how we communicate to others. The chapter explains how a doctor is the one who always asked a variety of questions so they are able to understand what may be wrong with a patient. It also tells us how teachers and pupils ask questions to each other. Within this chapter, it states that some pupils within a classroom setting feel nervous and shy to ask a question to there teacher. This is because many children feel that they could be wrong or they might not fully understand what they are learning. “One mayor reason given by students for their reluctance to ask questions in class is fear of negative reaction from classmates” ( Dillion, 1988).

There was a few words and phrases in this chapter that i was not sure of. I took it upon myself to look them up on a dictionary and find out the meanings so in the future, i will have a clear understanding of them.

Non-Verbal Behaviour

Allan Pease’s Presentation made me understand the way we use our hands is important. He presented the same instruction to the audience three times but used different gestures. The first gesture was a open palm facing upwards made you willing to go along with what he asked. However, as soon as he faced his palms downward it felt like an order to most people. The last part he was pointing to the audience to instruct them which looked very direct and aggressive. He then stated that we can change our body language to change our own behavior and by doing it and believing in how its meant to change your feeling towards that. I didn’t feel any different really upon trying it but if i tried it more often and in different situations it might have a better effect on me.

Mark Bowden was very interesting to watch, without the volume on i assumed that he was very passionate about what he was talking about and that he enjoyed it a lot due to him smiling. I felt that he was trying to engage the audience by constantly at the start half turning and making eye contact with people. When i turned the volume on i realized that his actions were in fact mimicking his words, for example when he was talking about cherry picking it looked as if he was pretending he was. I thought this would help your audience to understand your presentation or speech as they could look at the visual clues your giving them to reinforce your message. At University i feel that at first i wasn’t trying to be approachable to people as i didn’t know anything about them but after trying to approach people to make friends they were nice. I agree with his idea we should approach people and pretend even though it will be difficult it will help with our confidence and peoples skills.

In Amy Cuddy’s speech i felt that her quote “fake it until you become it” was very motivational and makes you want to do that to help in all different types of situations for yourself and even to help someone who needs it. As possible future teachers this is what we need to give to our students, allow them to feel comfortable in the classroom and feel like they can feedback to the class and do solo talks.

Integrated Arts- Print Making

This weeks seminar and lecture looked deeper into the visual arts and how it can be incorporated into different areas of the curriculum. We focused on a particular painting “Window’s in the West” by Avril Paton in 1993. Researching this painting, i discovered that this painting was created using watercolour on paper. This particular painting became Paton’s trademark, it was bought by the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art in 1994 and then in 2006 it was placed on display in Kelvingrove Art Museum. The painting was created from a personal memory of her life in Glasgow and took Paton around 6 months to complete. From living in Glasgow, i was able to understand the painting as i have been able to personally see tenement buildings in my environment which in turn allowed me to understand Paton’s vision with this painting.

The original “Window’s in the West” by Avril Paton.

In the lecture we analysed the visuals of the painting focusing on the form, process, mood and content of the painting (Taylor, 1999). Additionally, we looked at how literacy can be incorporated with the arts in the classroom. It showed me that we could even create an activity using a famous painting, like the aforementioned, and allow the children to further research the artist and create mind maps, or even create their own prints and explain the story they created from it. After the lecture, it was clear to see that arts can be incorporated to many areas of the curriculum in a vast number of ways.

Moreover, in the seminar we created our own prints. We were given polystyrene boards where we then traced a section of the painting onto the boards very carefully and in great detail, as this was going to act as the base to our print making.

The base of the print making- our traced part of the painting.

Following on from this, we put a layer of paint (yellow) over the top of the polystyrene and then pressed it onto a sheet of A4 paper to create a print.

The paint over the polystyrene before creating our first print.

We continued this idea, by using different colours of paper for the print as well as adding different colours of print on top, to give the print more detail, texture and colour.

As a student teacher, seminars like this one show me the importance and relevance of teaching arts to the younger generation. If teachers make the time then arts can easily be incorporated into the classroom as well as integrating it within other areas of the curriculum. The Tallis Pedagogy Wheel highlights the importance of children being given the opportunity to be imaginative and creative where they can let their creative minds flow into the unknown.

The second half of the day focused on drama. As a child, i was never really fond of drama i always got very nervous and anxious of performing in front of people. Whilst i was in primary school, my confidence did increase and i was able to take leads in school shows however, this changed when i went to high school and my nerves and anxiety came back. When i found out that it was drama that we would be doing in the seminar, i was very apprehensive and nervous of performing in front of my peers.

Drama is a way for children to express themselves, it can be an effective tool of developing communication skills, self-esteem, confidence, empathy, performance for them to flourish and develop into young adults. Drama is an area of the curriculum that can be incorporated into various other areas such as literacy, history, art and even possibly mathematics.

We took part in activities such as: improvisation, freeze frame, hot seating, and teacher in role. These activities allowed me to develop my confidence that little bit more and after taking part i realised that it wasn’t as scary and nerve-wracking as i had built it up to be. Our lecture also told us that with drama, sometimes as the teacher you just need to create another character to portray which can help with your nerves, which is something that i think i might need to do when i qualify.

I think its important that we as educators need to realise the importance and the skills that drama and art can have for children. We need to ensure that children are given as many opportunities as they can to develop there qualities and skills in these subjects as they are very effective in a child’s development.

Resources:

Taylor, R. (1999) Understanding and Investigating Art. United Kingdom: Hodder Education.

Thomas Tallis School. (2017) The TALLIS Habits Pedagogy Wheel. [Online] Available: http://www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html [Accessed: 07 October 2017]

Paton, A. (2017) Windows in the West. [Online] Available: https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west [Accessed: 07 October 2017]

Perform. (2017) Why is drama good for children? [Online] Available: https://www.perform.org.uk/blog/2014/01/why-is-drama-good-for-children/ [Accessed: 07 October 2017]

Learning Log: Climate Change

This week’s subject and directed study task focused on climate change, in what I found to be quite a complicated topic. The nuances of negotiating climate policy and how much there is to consider in attempting to find equal footing … Continue reading →