Thursday 23rd February

My Evocative Object.

‘What makes an object evocative is not the value of its worth, but the value of it possession to you. My watch was given to me by my dear older sister. It symbolises a gift I received on a special birthday to which we both share together. I wear this watch everyday with pride. Every time I look at it, it reminds me not only of how I got it, but of my favourite saying: ‘time is what we want most but what e use worst’ reminding me to make every minute in life count.’

Thursday 16 February

‘Museums inspire powerful and identity-building learning in children, young people and community members’ (DCMS, 2004).

Kelvingrove Art Museum is one of many places in Scotland where it would be beneficial to take children in order to learn about expressive arts. This is mainly due to the wide diversity of artwork which is demonstrated throughout the museum.

We as a group came up with a few reasons as to why it would be beneficial to take a class to a place such as Kelvingrove Art Museum, this list included things such as: it allows them to see different kinds of art which they wouldn’t usually see in class such as the floating heads exhibition shown in the picture below; it allows them to experience outdoor learning which Robertson (2014) describes as beneficial as it allows the development of children’s creative capacities; it also lets them see different artwork from different perspectives and also enables them to learn about the Scottish artwork which is present throughout the museum.

When looking at the famous painting ‘Windows in the West’ as shown below, it allowed us to look at it in great detail as the scale which it is in person is much bigger than what children could see should they look at it within a classroom.

‘The experience of public art and environmental change offers a useful focus for exploring notions of creativity and collaboration in community settings’ (Adams, 2008, p.131). Activities can be derived from an inspiration such as this, for example, whilst at the museum we were asked to come up with a scenario as to why there was a party going on within the second floor of this building. This would be a great activity for children to do as it allowed them to interpret drama into an art lesson and use and build upon their creativity skills in order to complete this task.

References

• ›Robertson, J (2014) Dirty Teaching. Carmarthen: Independent Thinking Press
• Adams, E. (2008) Art and Design Education and the Built Environment. In Coutts, G. & Jokela, T. (Eds) Art, Community and Environment: Educational Perspectives. Bristol: Intellect
• DCMS, (2004). Inspiration, Identity, Learning: The Value of Museums. 1st ed. London: RCMG.

Thursday 9th February

Expressing arts in outdoor learning focuses on the way in which public art can donate emotional, intellectual and social growth to young people. It allows children to experience the environment around them and be able to understand it in a way which is not possible through other disciplines.

I experienced the values which are learned through the experience of outdoor learning when participating in an activity today.  We were asked to choose an object and use our creativity to bring animation outside, to which we decided to bring different shades of blue wool to tie around a tree which was isolated from all the others in order to make it more exhilarating.

From taking part in this I can agree that ‘every young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever their age, ability or circumstances’ (DfES, 2006). This allowed us to be creative and imaginative whilst bringing vibrant colours and excitement to the neighbouring environment.

The amount of pressure for teachers to raise their standards when teaching subjects such as mathematics and literacy has resulted in other subjects such as art, to be disregarded. This is why activities such as being creative in the outdoor environment is vital as it ‘nurtures different ways of thinking and feeling; provides opportunities for active learning ad problem solving; develop skills f perception, communication and invention; and encourage the exploration of different social roles and relationships’ (Adams, 2008, p.24).

References

• Adams, E. (2008) Art and Design Education and the Built Environment. In Coutts, G. & Jokela, T. (Eds) Art, Community and Environment: Educational Perspectives. Bristol: Intellect
• DfES. (2006) Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto.

Thursday 2nd February

When developing my understanding and competence needed for the classroom, reflection and analytical thinking are the most valuable skills needed during the inputs for this module. These are skills which I believe are developing most whilst taking part of this module.

Moving on from the printmaking which I took part in during last weeks session, we worked on developing this further as well as adding some literature into this.

Projects such as this bring creativity to the classroom – something which this current generation is lacking. A topic such as printmaking is something which is distinct and different. Exposure to new ideas and concepts is ‘particularly instrumental In provoking creative responses from young people’ (Halsey, Jones and Lord, 2006, p.6).

A task such as this would also help stimulate creativity amongst socially excluded young people as it was said that ‘young people’s creativity was more likely to be stimulated when they perceived that the task they were engaged in was relevance to them and aligned with their experience of the world’ (Halsey, Jones and Lord, 2006, p.9).  This, again, is a relevant topic to teach children such as these, as it is beneficial to all children. As the topic is based on an evocative object, it brings in relevance to each individual child.

Topics such as these are examples of what we, as teachers, should be interpreting into the classroom in order to ‘nurture creativity’. Nurturing creativity is crucial as ‘we should build our policies on success… to look at what more we can do to nurture young creative talent and also to look for a clear set of assumptions which will help to inform the basis of our future policy on creativity’ (Roberts, 2–6, p.5).

By bringing processes such as this to the classroom, we, as teachers, are demonstrating changing STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) into STEAM (science, technology, engineering, maths). ‘STEAM is a way to take the benefits of STEM and complete the package by integrating these principles in and through the arts’ (Education Closet, 2016).

References

• Halsey, K., Jones, M. and Lord, P. (2006). What works in stimulating creativity amongst socially excluded young people. 1st ed. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research, p.6-9.
• Roberts, P. (2006). Nurturing Creativity in Young People. 1st ed. London: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, p.5.
• •Education Closet, (2016). What is STEAM?. [online] STEAM Portal. Available at: http://educationcloset.com/steam/what-is-steam/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2017]