detail of our outdoor collage
Day 3 of my induction week:
We have art.
The teacher shows us this youtube video.
This is the "stimulus" he tells us for "the bit of art" we are about to make. We daydream about our future classrooms equipped with electronic whiteboards, and the kinds of wonderfull things we will be able to do with them. We ignore for the moment the possibility, nay probability that we will not have these kinds of resources at hand. We will find a way! We are young and full of the joys that we see vividly ahead of us.
The teacher gives a small talk about the importance of visual literacy, about not only encouraging kids to produce art, but also to give them the vocabulary they will need to talk about their art, their classmate's art and famous works of art. Give them the vocabulary young while they are still unafraid of giving their honest opinions! He talks to us with a minimum of arty jargon, no condescension and yet manages to impress upon us the importance of going forth and imparting necessary vocabulary. I am impressed. I am filled with optimism for the years ahead. "This. Is. Great." I think to myself.
We sit at 5 or 6 oil cloth covered kitchen style tables. We are a group of 33 young teachers in training. We listen to our teacher talk a little about Kandinsky and the sort of questions we might ask our future students about his work. "I am eliciting responces" he tells us as he walks through the easy introduction to our task. We nod sagely and imagine ourselves busily elicting in our future imagined classrooms.
Before long, we are all 33 of us sitting contentedly, pastels in hand, totally focused on our little pieces of card. We are playing with colours. We are building our own concentric circles in squares. We are dabbing sponges in dry powdered paint and water. We are experimenting. We are learning the words "wax resist" and we are doing it too. We are artists for an hour, but not only this we are happy in the knowledge that we will at some point be able to provide a group of 30 odd youngsters with this same experience that we are now enjoying ourselves. We leave the room full of hope for the teachers that we want so much to become.
We have art.
The teacher shows us this youtube video.
This is the "stimulus" he tells us for "the bit of art" we are about to make. We daydream about our future classrooms equipped with electronic whiteboards, and the kinds of wonderfull things we will be able to do with them. We ignore for the moment the possibility, nay probability that we will not have these kinds of resources at hand. We will find a way! We are young and full of the joys that we see vividly ahead of us.
The teacher gives a small talk about the importance of visual literacy, about not only encouraging kids to produce art, but also to give them the vocabulary they will need to talk about their art, their classmate's art and famous works of art. Give them the vocabulary young while they are still unafraid of giving their honest opinions! He talks to us with a minimum of arty jargon, no condescension and yet manages to impress upon us the importance of going forth and imparting necessary vocabulary. I am impressed. I am filled with optimism for the years ahead. "This. Is. Great." I think to myself.
We sit at 5 or 6 oil cloth covered kitchen style tables. We are a group of 33 young teachers in training. We listen to our teacher talk a little about Kandinsky and the sort of questions we might ask our future students about his work. "I am eliciting responces" he tells us as he walks through the easy introduction to our task. We nod sagely and imagine ourselves busily elicting in our future imagined classrooms.
Before long, we are all 33 of us sitting contentedly, pastels in hand, totally focused on our little pieces of card. We are playing with colours. We are building our own concentric circles in squares. We are dabbing sponges in dry powdered paint and water. We are experimenting. We are learning the words "wax resist" and we are doing it too. We are artists for an hour, but not only this we are happy in the knowledge that we will at some point be able to provide a group of 30 odd youngsters with this same experience that we are now enjoying ourselves. We leave the room full of hope for the teachers that we want so much to become.
Later that day, we emerge from lunch and we are greeted with this happy sight! We are the unlikely artists of a new temporary outdoor exhibition. People are passing and conversations are being sparked. We are pleased. Silently we make a mental note to ourselves: We will display our future students' work creatively.
Our art drying and exhibiting itself in the sun
