On December 16 we celebrated the launch of the Writers’ Exchange fall program book titled “The Book of Everything”!
Each student that attends our programming had a piece of their own writing professionally published in the book, and everyone got to take a copy of the book home to share with family over the holidays. I myself had a lot of fun re-reading the stories by the kids over the holidays – I am continually impressed and humbled by the incredible stories that these little ones come up with! I am SO PROUD of all the hard work these kids put into the creation of this book and glad that everyone had such a good time at the party celebrating. I am especially proud of those who chose to read their stories in front of the 100+ people who showed up to the launch! Even I was nervous when asked by a kid to help them read in front of the crowd… so it was very impressive that so many of them had the confidence to get up there and share their amazing work. I am so lucky to be involved in the lives of these little ones, and with the amazing organization that does so much for them. For more info on the Writers' Exchange check out their website at www.vancouverwe.com or click on the social media icons below for some more fun pictures!
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The first larger assignment I did with the students at WVSS was a lesson on developing composition in an image. Specifically, I wanted students to understand the concepts of foreground, middle ground, and background, and how these planes affect the message of an image.
I first had students work in groups of three to take photos on the digital SLR cameras of compositions where the subject was either in the foreground, middle ground, or background. Once they had three images that they were happy with, which had examples of the subject in all three different compositions, the students printed the images and build a three-dimensional construction of the image where each specific plane was cut out separate from the others and arranged further or closer to the background of the image. From the front, the images look as they would normally, however when viewed from the side, you can see how the different layers of the image are separated from each other to create a 3D representation. The second week of the short practicum coincided with Remembrance day, and so in my after school multimedia class I taught students two different methods for making poppies out of paper. The first method used tissue paper to create interesting and delicate textures resembling the flower, and for the second method, we hand-painted regular A4 paper with tempera paint and used quilling techniques to create unique, three dimensional flowers. At the end, we made an installation on a wall in the classroom in the style of a local artist to West Vancouver, Bobbie Burgers, whose sculptural floral artwork titled “Innocence Disobedience” was recently installed in the new Simon’s department store in West Vancouver.
On the first day of my short practicum I was asked to plan a lesson for the following day’s Multimedia class. At first I was incredibly stressed at having to plan something on short notice and for teaching high school students for the first time. While I was trying to think of what to do with the students I decided to take a chance and do an activity that I’ve enjoyed doing myself before, as well as one that I’ve had success with teaching elementary students through the Writers’ Exchange. I was pleased with how the lesson turned out and think that the students were able to have a lot of fun with it. We did a surrealist-themed lesson that began with a word association game in pairs that led to the creation of absurd surrealist-style drawings, and then did a class-wide round of the exquisite corpse exercise, which requires each student to draw a segment of a body, without knowing what the previous person contributed to the drawing. The results are bizarre human-monster-hybrid beings could only come about through the collaborative process!
I attended the BCATA conference on October 23rd for the Pro-D opportunity. The day began with a lecture by Canadian sculptural artist Vic Cicansky, and then I attended three workshops led by BC art teachers and artists.
The first workshop was the most helpful for me and was taught by Nancy Crawford of Langley Fine Arts School. She gave a simple process for helping students to make their artwork meaningful and personal, and many examples of student work to show how the technique can be used in classrooms of all levels. This process is outlined in her book ‘Getting In! A comprehensive preparation program for art school’ as well as on her numerous websites related to her book, her teaching, and her personal art practice. I look forward to using these resources in my own lesson planning and personal practices. The second workshop I attended was taught by Jeanne Krabbendam of Emily Carr university and gave practical examples of different art mediums that can be used in art classrooms to create different effects and professional finished to help students elevate their work. A few of the techniques were also useful in that they showed how to achieve similar finishes to other techniques that may be too toxic or expensive for high school environments. The final workshop gave me another technique specific practice that I could use in my classroom. We were taught the history of Shibori (japanese indigo dyeing), and how to make the dye and use it to stain textiles. The best part of this technique is the applications it can have to other subject areas. For example, the mixing of the dye is a very scientific process that relies on oxidation of chemicals in various ways and transformation of materials.This could be a great way to bridge chemistry, art, and home economics together, as well as history. An example from our workshop on printmaking! Thanks to all from our EDCP 302A class who shared their knowledge. I used an adapted linocut technique (using styrofoam plates instead of lino plates) to make this three colour print of a leaf. This is a great technique for younger students as it is much safer than traditional linocut, and a good way for older students to plan their images out before committing to the lino block, particularly if they are planning on doing multiple layered prints, like I have done in my sample.
At King George Secondary, we had the opportunity to observe Matt Sinclair’s grade 9 IB MYP visual art class and his grade 12 visual art class. It was obvious that Matt had a very good relationship with his students; they respected him and enjoyed his class, and students even came to his room between classes for support with other projects. In both of Matt’s classes he began with a hook video of a new art media that was of interest to him and talked about the future of art practices with his students. Then, he gave a brief demonstration of an art technique and had students spend the beginning of class practicing the techniques he demonstrated. His demonstrations were short enough that students kept their interest in it, but gave enough detail that they could successfully recreate it on their own. He gave them options for choosing their own subject matter so as to support their autonomy and individuality, and told them how the warm ups would be used later on by giving them a purpose for the assignment.
After the warm up techniques, Matt explained what the larger project for the day would be and showed examples of contemporary artists that work in the media he was demonstrating. Some students in his class offered examples of artists they had researched on their own that might be of interest to the class, which Matt encouraged them to do. During the assignments we floated around the classroom to offer support one-on-one, and answered questions from the TCs. At the end of the day, students shared the work they had done together with the rest of the class, and Matt went over the homework expectations and upcoming assignments so that it was clear to everyone. Classroom management seemed to be easy for him; both classes had smaller numbers of students and they all seemed to be fairly well-behaved and focused. There were a few students in the senior class that were more outspoken and less focused, however Matt seemed to be able to manage them quite well because of his knowledge of the students as individuals and the relationship he had built with each of them. For our first time in a high-school classroom since, well, high school, I had a wonderful experience and learned a lot. Thanks Matt! My first assignment for EDCP was to give an art demonstration on a chosen skill or technique, and tie it to a potential ‘big idea’ for the course we were teaching. I chose to teach the class how to stretch canvas over a frame, which is a great way to save money on materials, as well as take ownership of your own work by engaging in the whole creative process. This assignment was also very useful for learning strategies for classroom management, since the rest of my classmates were required to act as if they were students in my chosen grade level, and I was required to respond appropriately to their actions. My “students” did a great job at living up to this task and certainly didn’t go easy on any of us “teachers.” The attachment below contains the document I created to help teach students, step-by-step, how to make their own canvases. Feel free to download if you will find the handout helpful!
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