The Art-venture

This week’s focus is on building a Positive Classroom Culture, which is 1 of the 4 key teaching processes under the STP. I would be highlighting some classroom management approaches employed by my CT, as well as my observations of students’ in-class behavior in response to my CT’s management style. I understood that through the building of a positive classroom culture, we are able to meet students’ basic psychological needs. This sets the stage for effective learning as students will be motivated to learn in an environment that provides them with positive learning experiences. Drawing on content from the Pedagogical Practices module, there are 5 key factors that make up a positive classroom culture which I will be linking to my observations in my CT’s lessons. Establishing interactions and rapport In my observations, I’ve noticed that my CT tries her best to address students by their names whenever she calls on them to share their inputs on a piece of artwork. She encourag...

P Lessons are planned such that students really do engage with their prior knowledge and this recapping session was used to engage and excite students for the main activity/topic that week. (Shapes  à  matisse  à  collage) Scaffolding of lesson content such that students can follow easily. intentional recapping of artists and artworks gone through in previous lessons.  Use of positive reinforcement to guide students towards desired behaviors – helps reinforce a positive classroom culture as well!  Interesting and relevant videos planned and inserted to recap / tie in prior knowledge to current activity. knowing students well allow for more effective differentiation!  use of IPAD to conduct SLS lessons, allow students to explore for related content (ART) on the internet and use those to formulate their responses.  planning for closure  important to consolidate learning, can be used as a formative assessment to see if student...

P Managing student behavior  Clear consequences stated before starting activity For students with SEN, knowing them and what they like, using the reward system to remind them of behavior we want to see, giving contingent rewards. using proximity, walking nearer to student and then silently removing distractions from students without stopping the lesson/disrupting the whole class.   discipline / reinforcing consequences ASAP such that the child who is misbehaving is clear on their misbehavior, without naming/shaming the student in front of the whole class. calling student who posting inappropriate comment on SLS aside to speak privately. Speaking calmly yet firmly to convey severity of actions --> "Not acceptable".   used that incident to remind other students to be mindful of their words and actions online and to act responsibility.   Using trigger questions to guide students' thinking for e.g., weaving in questions...

This week’s TA task focused my observation on the motivational and lesson enactment strategies employed by my CT, which makes up one of the 4 teaching processes under the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP). In my observations, I saw that my CT packaged the art experiences in a way that allowed students to connect their learnings. This helps sustain their learnings as students drew on their prior art experiences in making sense of the new activities introduced. For one, she often provided a prelude to the following week’s art lesson by giving students a brief overview of what they can expect within the closure segment of the previous lesson. For instance, in hyping the Primary-1 students up for the texture painting activity the following week, she invited student to actively source for and bring in recyclable materials such as bubble wrappings and old toys in preparation for this week’s activity. At the same time, she also recapped on the texture exploration activities that student...

I would like to start by saying that I am grateful to have been able to come back to my contract school to serve the TA, and to get an opportunity to really observe and learn from my CT. This week’s task is on the Class Profile, and through the conversation with my CT - M, I learnt that it is essential for us to know our learners well in order to truly meet their diverse learning needs. A class profile is useful in keeping us clear on the needs of the pupils in a class, which would guide our planning and tailoring of lessons for the respective classes! M shared with me how she prepared for art lessons with a P1 class, where there is a student who required greater attention from her. First, in profiling the student, she recognized that he presented with symptoms of Attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD), anger management and oppositional defiance disorder (ODD), although these concerns have yet to be diagnosed. These concerns would manifest themselves in his short atte...

This is a question that I received almost every day for the first 2 weeks of my contract teaching when I introduced myself as a new, untrained Art Teacher who had recently graduated with a Psychology degree - Why teach art? While I had some responses to it, I was initially uncertain if my premature ideas would reflect the reality of Art Education in schools, and unconfident of my own resolution to make it a reality, hence I often left that question hanging. Through these 4 months of contract teaching, I've experienced so many exciting and nerve-wracking firsts under the tutelage of my fabulous mentor. These experiences were accompanied by a myriad of emotions that strengthened my belief in Art Education and clarified the role I wanted to play in it. I have witnessed how art lessons have the potential to p rovide students with authentic learning experiences. For instance, in the P1's lesson on Land Art, students were exposed to natural materials found all around us. In stud...