As a collaborative project for our ARTE441 class at UBC, a fellow student and I decided to get together and create a resource package that would aid elementary teachers in producing quality art. We thought we could master our use of technology, and create an online resource that would be able to be revisited and updated time after time, promoting life-long learning amongst ourselves and show our contribution to the profession, by constantly looking at what current issues are important.

Directly from the welcome page on the website, it states “During my practicum experience, I sat in on Learning Team meetings for District 43. A huge issue that continually arose was the lack of art specialists in elementary and middle school classrooms. Further this posing a problem for students who take visual arts in high school and lack exposure to concrete artistic development. Elementary & Middle school teachers were desperate for information from the art specialists teaching in high schools, and with the high school teachers’ busy schedules, they were having a hard time constructing packages for these frustrated teachers.  The elementary & middle school teachers were requesting specifically, support and ideation within this subject area.”

My colleague and I co-taught a grade 2 class at University Hill Elementary in early June, and we discussed crafting a package that could potentially aid these teachers. We thought it would be useful to create a resource that combined skill building and conceptual driven art making. We wanted to gain experience creating a “packaged” resource that could fundamentally help a genuine and current issue within the public school system.

During my time teaching in Singapore, I was faced with the reality that the two educational systems (Canada and Singapore) were worlds apart in terms of formalities. Growing up in Alberta and attending 12 years of public education there, was vastly different than the years of public education the students in Singapore were getting from my perspective.

I was told when I arrived overseas, that I would be teaching five classes of Secondary One level students, which would be the equivalent to Grade 8 in Canada. They had been learning about the elements of art, and I would be taking over and introducing them to Color. I had to come up with several ways that would engage the students and keep them learning about concepts, while adapting to my style of teaching. The students were grouped in classes according to the PSLE (primary school leaving exam) and although there were 40 students in a class, they were all at the same skill and ability level which was a huge surprise to me.

I decided that after teaching them an introduction to color theory, a fun way to check for understanding would be to create a game show, under the format of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. Learning of software available to make this possible, I spent several hours constructing a game show that would be relevant to the students based on their previous lesson with me.

This process really had me think about my need to improve my practice, and developing engaging ways of incorporating technology into the classroom when I returned to Canada. With an abundance of technological resources available, it’s not about when you use them, but how you use them within your classroom. The students were very receptive to this method of checking for understanding, and I even had verbal feedback that my classes were “so fun and exciting”. The report from my sponsor teacher in Singapore even highlighted that I was enthusiastic about teaching and had shown a good learning attitude.

Further feedback from my sponsor teacher during my overseas experience touched on the fact that my “willingness to take risks with my lessons paid off as students were evidently engaged in their learning”. This statement also made me more aware of the need for life-long learning, always challenging myself in terms of my skills and abilities and how I can implement recent engagements into my daily practice.

Professional Development with Angela Grossmann

Professional development is a very important part of a young educator’s career in order to enhance career growth, and I was lucky to attend three professional development seminars during my practicum in North Vancouver.

During my short practicum in the fall of 2008, I had the opportunity of attending a professional development day at the Artists for Kids Gallery in North Vancouver. Through the sale of original prints created by its’ artist patrons, the goal of the Artists for Kids Gallery is to build an art education legacy for the children of British Columbia and providing a variety of Fine Arts enrichment opportunities for learners in North Vancouver schools as well as the community at large.

The professional development workshop comprised of an artist talk, and then studio time with practicing artist, Angela Grossmann. In June 2006, Grossmann was included in a list of 100 artists who have most influenced students at eleven leading British art schools, including the Royal Academy, Slade and Royal College of Art. I also had the pleasure of having her as an instructor during my undergraduate degree at Emily Carr University.

Being a well rounded teacher in the art field is very important to me, and any improvement I can get in a certain area will greatly reflect my passion and dedication to art. Drawing is one of my weaker areas, so I embraced the day of dialogue and learning to draw with Angela. Through one-on-one consultations, we were able to get advice and inspiration from Angela, and I created a piece that I was very happy with and reflected my growth and development.

live model drawing workshop

In January 2009 the Ministry of Education in Singapore had a teacher recruiting session in North America, and I eagerly set up an interview during their visit to Vancouver. Three weeks after my interview, I received a letter stating that I had a successful interview, and had the opportunity to do an International Practicum for the last 4 weeks of my long practicum. This was the first year this partnership was available, and I immediately accepted the offer. Funding was provided by the National University of Singapore, and I lived and worked at a neighborhood school for one month, April – May 2009. During my time overseas, I grew professionally more than I had with my previous 9 weeks in Canada. I had to quickly adapt to a different education system than I was used to, creating lesson plans and engaging projects, while sharing my passion for Art with Singaporean students.

Below is my first week reflection of the practicum in Singapore. Every week we had to submit reflections to the Ministry to reflect on our experiences and how they differed from teaching in Canada. The very first day I arrived at the school, the principal asked me to make a speech to the entire school at the morning assembly. From that moment on, I was a role model at Yishun Town Secondary School and an ambassador for Canada.

introduction speech in Singapore

_______________________

WEEK ONE REFLECTION
April 13th – 17th, 2009

_______________________

Week one has been filled with several different observations in the Art area only. There is a real feeling of panic from teachers and students, as midyear exams are approaching. Teachers are not willing to let me observe their classes until things settled down in the next couple weeks. So I have stuck to the Art turf, which is the area I know best.

To backtrack a little, I think it’s important to touch on my overall initial observations of the school, and how it is the same, or different from my perceptions of teaching in Canada. Whether the same, or different, both schools I have taught at now are filled with eager students willing to achieve academic success.

It is nice to see morning assembly take place, with the flag raising, national anthem, and Singapore citizen pledge. I have never seen this sort of structure in a school that I have attended, or taught at. The Discipline Master was stationed at the front of the stage looking for unruly students. Students who were late (after 7:35am) were held outside of the school gates and escorted to the front of the stage where they would stand facing the whole school for the duration of the assembly. Students were busy sitting on the ground and reading copies of the newspaper for the 20 minutes after flag raising, and the late students had to read standing at the front.

I was asked to make a small speech introducing myself on my first morning at Yishun, so after a couple minutes of preparation, I marched onto stage in front of 1000+ cheering students. The Yishun Town Secondary School Principal, Mr. Tan Yee Kan, informed me that I was the first white teacher these students have ever seen or had at Yishun Town, and that this was going to be a really unique experience for them. The students we very receptive and welcoming, and it was a good way for me to become approachable, as I stood there vulnerable and sweating for what felt like an eternity! From that moment on, I knew I was going to be a role model for these students, and ambassador for UBC, and Canada as well.

For my first classroom observation I watched Miss Diyana’s Secondary 1 class from 8:00-9:00am. Miss Diyana is a student teacher, like myself, and in her last 3 weeks of practicum. It was really valuable watching her, and her structure and discipline for this Technical stream class. Students were asked to line up outside, and separated into two lines. One line was formed for people who brought their homework and materials, and another line for those who didn’t. Girls were permitted to enter the classroom first, but could only sit with a maximum of 3 girls per table. The boys then came in and filled the rest of the seats at the table. For the remaining 15 or so students who forgot their homework, they were asked to stand at the back of the classroom and watch the lesson while standing. Two girls began to giggle and were sent outside to watch the lesson through the window.

This was my first sense of real discipline in the classroom here. If expectations were set about not talking, Miss Diyana followed through with the rule breakers and took appropriate actions. The threats and actions are obviously a lot more serious here as opposed to in Canada, but the students respect and prefer a sense of firm structure from my understanding.

Once the students began working, they were asked not to talk, as it becomes a distraction to themselves and their peers. With 40 students in the class, it is easy to get noisy and out of hand if this rule is not in place. The work time was allocated for the last half of the class, and the students seemed on task for the most part.

The next several observations I watched during this week were of the same nature and nothing extreme to report in detail.  It was valuable to observe Mr. Tan Guo Liang instruct several classes, as he is the person I’ve been paired up with for this project. He has a very good rapport, and the students enjoy his lessons and are hard to work for the last part of the classes.  The open air, and no air conditioning classrooms are a bit difficult for me to get used to, and I know my coming weeks will be hard in that sense. The resources in the classroom are in good working order, and the large classroom size is nice to have, although the whole room isn’t used effectively. There is a lot of dead space and sometimes it’s a stretch to engage students in the far reaches of the room. Students bring their own materials, and are responsible for bringing them to class every lesson. No materials are provided for the students to use at the Secondary 1 level.

Much of the structure, content, and outcome is the exact same as I would expect from my students at home. I have learned several firm classroom management strategies from my observations, however I don’t know to what extent I’d apply them at home. The SOW (Scheme Of Work) determines what the students will learn throughout the extent of the course, and the teachers follow that guideline when modifying and planning for the individual lessons.

Week 1 has been a real learning experience, and I’m looking forward to applying my new knowledge to teaching a lesson in the classroom next week!

International Teachers from Canada & the UK

I decided early on in my practicum, to pursue an opportunity overseas and therefore had to leave for Singapore after only 9 weeks in North Vancouver. Parent/Teacher Interviews happened to fall on the evening before I flew overseas, so luckily I was able to participate.

The letter mentions that “Kelly was comfortable talking to parents and had valuable information for them regarding the work she had done with their children and the work she was doing with them. She carried the conversation as a full fledged teacher.”

I had prepared ahead of time, an area in the class that displayed the students work so that as we discussed the child’s progress, they were able to see visual examples of what had been done during class time. I had copies of the rubrics I designed so that I was able to break down exactly what criteria I was looking for, as well as share evidence of the students self evaluation. Self evaluation proved to be a very valuable form of assessment, as it kept the students accountable for their work as they had to reflect on their own choices.

It was rewarding to have several parents say they had heard about my teaching from their son or daughter, as I hoped the projects I had designed engaged their children and challenged them to learn new techniques, or try new things they may had not done, and had left a lasting impression on them before I departed.

Sponsor teacher Charlene Gavel

This is a letter of reference that was written for me on behalf of my sponsor teacher in May 2009.

This letter is important because it highlights my strengths and areas of expertise, as well as discusses areas in which I have excelled as a new teacher. It is a valuable tool for employees to view, as a reflection of my passion and work ethic towards teaching.

In the second paragraph it mentions that I created a website so that “students were able to communicate and share their project ideas from the comfort of their home.” This is an important point, because it shows that I value and care for my students, acting in their best interest. I made sure that I was assessing and meeting student needs in a fashion that is reflective of the diversity of learners in the classroom. The website was designed as an outlet, so that I could check for understanding on multiple levels. As a teacher this is really important, because with 180 students in all of your classes combined, it is easy to lose sight of what is important, and that is the care and contact with the students.

class website homepage

Directly from my unit plan, it states that “through the use of a class website created using the free networking tools at Ning.com, students can post and share their work online as a way to communicate and share ideas during the unit. The website will be used to document progress and communicate with several students at once, by the sharing of verbal and image based documents. It is also effective if students are absent from school, as daily activities are posted on the site, and students can take initiative for their own learning.”

The letter also mentions that I was involved with extracurricular activities where I encouraged the Art Club to paint a mural in the main hall. Staying late during the evenings to facilitate this project allowed students who were not able to take art with their schedule, the opportunity to participate in creative projects throughout the school. It gave the chance for passionate students to be involved in the school community.

Shortly after my long practicum started, I was given the opportunity to teach overseas in Singapore. That entailed that my practicum would be condensed to 9 weeks, therefore I only taught my two grade 11/12 art classes for 5 weeks.

During that time I had to work really hard to create a quick bond with my students, as my practicum was being shortened by 4 weeks. I spent long hours perfecting my lessons, and making sure I was available inside and outside of class time. Students would often come in and ask questions during lunch and after school, perfecting techniques we had done, and inquiring about how to push their project further.

I set up a website for the classes, where students were free to use the social networking site as an outlet to ask me about any questions, concerns, or comments they had about the project. I felt as though it was a way for students to feel safe and confident and it demonstrated my awareness of the transformative power of learning through technology, seeing as many teenagers are comfortable with this kind of communication.

This note was from a student in my senior art class. The student was a quiet person, who was always busy working during class time, and did not have much to say during class. The website proved to be a valuable communication tool, because I doubt without it, I would have received this acknowlegement.

This is a screen capture of the title page and table of contents for my ‘Studument’ Unit Plan designed for Grade 11/12 students. It is a self reflection project, which takes place visually through the form of an altered book. It allows students to work with found objects, and discusses sustainability in terms of exploring it through an artistic and personal realm. Students construct personal art books that address their theme, exploring it in either 2D or 3D form, and possibly touching on the already present content of the book.

In today’s society we are constantly reminded of the need to sustain our environment. This unit is designed keeping in mind this constant theme of sustainability, by accessing materials that are already around us. Students will gather artifacts and found objects to help with the visual development of their book. Discarded library books that are no longer useful resources in schools will be used to facilitate this process, and lessons around how to develop theme appropriately using a variety of techniques with different mediums will guide the process.

Students will create pages in their altered book reflecting their understanding of a wide variety of image sources, techniques, and image-development and design strategies. They will demonstrate their ability to communicate effectively using a variety of materials, techniques, and processes.

(Perceiving/Responding)
It is expected that students will:
• examine the relationship between the use of particular image-development strategies and
intended mood and message
• analyze how context influences the content and form of images
• explain how particular combinations of elements and principles
influence personal preference
• predict the effect of altering particular elements and principles in selected images

(Creating/Communicating)
It is expected that students will:
• create images within a specific visual expression area:
- using a variety of image-development strategies to create images on a single concept focusing
on one subject or theme
-that demonstrate effective use of the elements and principles to convey the intended mood or
message
- that reflect personal contexts
• apply design strategies to solve a design problem
• demonstrate self-direction in selecting sources to create images to achieve a specific purpose