For me, this week really highlighted how uniformed art lessons were for me during my time at primary school. When the teacher taught an art lesson, the usually put an image by an artist up on the board and we were pretty much to copy it as best as we could. This ended up with everybody’s end product looking very much the same. No individuality. The entire class was to use the same utensils, the same techniques and the same colour palette. Although, some individuals work would look better than others, sheerly for the fact they were better at art.The advice from Diarmuid was to have art lessons pupil lead but as a teacher, keep it controlled. You want the children to express themselves via their interpretation of the art topic of that lesson. I do not want my class to have extremely similar looking art work. I want the children to have fun with what they are doing and not feel like they can only draw in a certain way or paint with a certain colour.You do not want to end up having a uniformed art lesson. Art is art. Art is not copying someone else’s work.
In the lecture we discussed Room 13 and its approach to art and creativity. Room 13 is a room within a Scottish school that has a specialised resident art teach who’s purpose is to be in the school to aid children on their creative journey. This project has been going on since 1994. Room 13 encourages ambition and aspiration at every stage and age. They have a proven record of keeping children engaged and have a reputation of addressing some of the problems facing young people in society today (Room 13, 2012). I would love for this to be introduced and acted upon in as many schools as possible throughout Scotland as I feel as it is beneficial for all children involved. This approach encourages creativity within the school as a whole.
In the drama workshop we discussed how drama classes and improvisations can be used to teach difficult societal issues. Using drama to highlight current issues in society is a fun way for children to learn about serious issues. This was extremely helpful as it showed everyone that we can use drama as a tool to teach controversial topics. Drama is more likely to keep the pupils engaged and interested comparatively to a teacher standing in front of the pupils talking at them (Kokx, 2017).
In the art workshop we various used materials to create our own, unique, paintbrushes. We were to use our paintbrushes to paint our interpretation of an image of the Scottish Highlands which was described to us by Diarmuid. This was a successful activity in regards to every individuals painting and paintbrush being completely different. Every person in the room was given the same brief and set of instructions but ended up with a completely different finished product. This activity demonstrated how being given the opportunity to create our own paintbrush can lead to every person having a different creative journey. If this were to be done in a classroom of primary pupils, I am confident that they would enjoy this activity and that the array of creativity within each child would come to surface. Materials for this task would be easily accessible and inexpensive as they would most likely be available in the school and materials could also be found outside that could be used to create the paintbrush.
Room 13 (2012) About Room 13 [Online] Available: http://room13international.org/about/ [Accessed 28 October]
Kokx, K. (2017) Effects of Musical Theater Education on the Self Esteem of Middle School Students. Ed.D. Dissertations, Concordia University – Portland.
