Evaluation

Unit x as a whole…

Overall I have had a fantastic experience in College 1, I have learnt so much is such a short space of time and I have gained some really valuable experience involving the preparation and delivery of workshops for various age groups. I have found that there are so many different areas of the teaching profession that I had little or no idea about, after evaluating my experiences individually I have found it somewhat difficult to evaluate it as a whole due to each part of this unit being so different from each other. So to summarise this experience I will list the learning objectives and comment whether or not I have achieved them.

- Demonstrate an understanding of the relevance of interdisciplinary perspectives and the

professional world.

 – I feel that I have completed this objective by learning about teaching with various learning styles, different age groups, different abilities and disabilities and learning about art therapy and how it is used.

- Reflect on their practice within a context of ambiguity, uncertainty and unfamiliarity.

- I feel that I have been reflective throughout but in some cases I could have been more thorough. 

- Demonstrate creative responses through a body of work related to project options and

outcomes.

 – I feel that by delivering the workshops and taking part in other students workshops I have done this. 

- Demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively and articulate the impact of collaboration on their own methodology.

– I feel that by planning and delivering workshops as a group this objective has been complete.

- Confidently present outcomes to an informed audience in an appropriate form.

– After delivering a number of workshops and visiting schools I feel that I have gained more and more confidence as this unit has progressed resulting in an overall successful unit.

 

After speaking with family members involved in teaching and health care professions I have decided to look into doing workshops for people with social skill issues, health issues such as dementia, people over 55 and families with financial problems as I feel that these groups of people may feel somewhat 'deprived' of creativity in some way. I feel that this would be an interesting thing to look into and hopefully experience in the future as I have not been able to do this in this particular unit. I will look into various means of trying voluntary positions/ placements over the summer period.

Microteaching session (15th May 2014)

Microteaching workshop

Preparation for today’s workshop consisted of:

·         Preparing a selection of examples such as images, a mood board with the progression and development of a yarn wrap and a wide range of my own different style yarn wraps.

·         Assembling the hand-out packages which contained: a worksheet showing examples of different yarn wrappings and a written step-by-step guide, two A4 images for the students to choose from, a ready-made viewfinder and 3 pieces of card for wrapping prepared with double sided tape.

·         Gathering enough yarns in the appropriate colours in accordance to the two images given in the package.

·         Ensuring I have enough pairs of scissors for each student.

Once at the studios each student took it in turns to deliver their workshop, when it came to be my turn I immediately felt a rush of nerves fill my mind and I started to panic slightly. I took a deep breath and began my introduction, I felt like it lasted a lifetime until I found my confidence and my explanations and responses to questions began to make sense. Throughout the workshop I kept a watchful eye over each individual ensuring they were all heading in the right direction, frequently asking if everyone was okay or if they had any questions. I was more than happy to answer all of the questions asked and I personally feel that I answered them to the best of my ability. I was also glad to see that they all felt comfortable and could understand the process of yarn wrappings and how they can be useful, it seemed to me as though everyone had a positive outlook towards the meaning behind them and they might even use them in their own practice at some point.

I was very pleased with the outcome of this workshop and the positive feedback from the students and tutors has helped me realise the most important aspects of delivering a workshop. The things I remembered such as being prepared with resources, responses to questions, watching over and/or asking if anyone needs help. And also the parts that I didn’t quite completely remember, such as being more clear in the way you start a workshop description, always have clear reasoning for everything (examples, uses of things etc.)

 

Abraham Moss One day placement report.

On this placement day we were split into small groups of 2/3 people, we were then put into various classes to help assist the teacher and students in whatever way we could. In the first half of the day I was with a class of year 10 art students, as they were nearing a deadline they all had an almost completed sketchbook and either a final piece of a plan for a final piece. I went around the whole class asking each student what there project was about, how they have found, what they liked or disliked most about it and whether they were interested in doing an art subject once they left school. The majority of them were still unsure as they also enjoy many other aspects of their school life, however there were a small number of students who were 100% sure they wanted to continue with their creativity. After this, I went around to each individual to ask if they wanted any help with their work in terms of ideas, advice, artist research etc. but most of them were very confident in their work, which was lovely to see. One student however was struggling with the display of his sketchbook, he asked for some advice on what to do with some of his drawings and how he should present them in his sketchbook. After a little chat about various ways he could do it myself and another student sat and helped him turn his drawings into a series of collage displays and sketchbook pages, he seemed extremely grateful for our help and smiled as he explained the process to his teacher.

For the afternoon session, I was with a class of year 8 students, which meant they had yet to pick their options. I was slightly worried at first as I thought there might be a number of students who do not enjoy art and become bored easily resulting in some form of misbehaviour. (When I was in high school this happened often in the early years). Fortunately, I was wrong and although some students did not particularly enjoy art they got on with their set tasks, again I went around each table and questioned the students to see if they were interested in someday becoming an artist. As they were a young group of students, I did not expect any of them to have a clear idea of what they want to do as a career, but many of them seemed quite keen to follow up their favourite subjects (mainly P.E, Science and Maths). With a small amount of disturbance throughout the lesson, it seemed to be going much better than expected until the year group were called into an assembly that took up the last hour of the school day. This is a perfect example of having to deal with unexpected issues and learning how to deal with them in a professional manor.

From this experience, I have gained a better knowledge of how a teacher’s day is constructed and how control of a classroom can make a difference in the outcome of work at the end of the session. I feel much more confident in my ability to help others and I hope to gain even more confidence and teaching skills with the help of voluntary positions in the near future. I have also learnt that my idea of an ideal career may not necessarily be the most suitable in terms of financial income, after talking to one of the teachers about wanting to do weekly workshops in various schools with different age groups, ability etc. I was advised that a full time teaching position in a set school is a much better way of fulfilling a teaching career as not only is it a regular income for stability in general, but you get to know the students you are working with on more personal level. You can see the progression of their personality in themselves and in their work, and to me the sense of achievement of contributing to student’s future career aspects would be a wonderful thing.

Workshop proposals/briefs

Microteaching planning brief

For this brief i will be holding a workshop session based on an area of my personal practice, after considering a number of activities I have cosen to do a yarn wrapping session as a demo, I will consider various learning styles and how i would need to adapt my lesson plan for any of the following: Age, mental health issues disabilities, age groups etc. As it will only be a 10 minute workshop i have done some preparations to ensure the students get the most out of the time, I have prepared a small hanout 'package' that contains the following: a worksheet showing examples of different yarn wrappings and a written step by step guide, two A4 images for the students to choose from, a ready made viewfinder and 3 pieces of card for wrapping prepared with double sided tape. (see fig.1) For the planning form see fig.2.

Fig.1

 

 

Fig.2

 

This workshop willbe held on the 15th May 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

External workshop proposal for Stockport creative festival

 

As a group of five, we came up with an idea for a workshop that could have taken place on the Saturday 17th May in Stockport Studios for the public to drop in to an all day session. After walking around the beautiful town with its historic and cultural buildings, we decided that they would be a great basis for our workshop as there is a wide variety of building styles to choose from. We decided to plan an Orientation Workshop that would consist of the public of either taking their own pictures of a section of a building on the street the studio is on, or choose a photograph from the many we would have pre done on the wall. They would then chose from four different techniques – Hand stitching (plastic needles for young children), Embroidery, Drawing ( fabric pens), Sewing machines. According to certain age groups, some stations may be suitable for specific ages and interests. Each of us were given a role to enable contribution from each member of the group, the roles were finding imagery/ taking photographs of stockport, creating posters and leaflets to advertise the workshop, creating examples of embroidery to show possible outcomes, showing drawings styles and techniques that could be used and also finding various artists or designers who use similar approaches to their own practice so the public can see the techniquies being used in a profesional manor.

Aim:

Involve the general public in creating art from a section of a building by using a stitching technique on an individual A5 piece of fabric, using the Stockport council colours (Green, yellow, blue, grey, black). Every piece will be sewn together to create a big quilt, this will then be given to the Stockport council to display and allow people to appreciate Stockports architecture.

Objectives:

Run an open stitching and drawing workshop that will run throughout the day continuously that is based on photography and sight-seeing of Stockport. It will hold four stations that will suit all age groups and abilities.

Resources:

Plastic needles
Embroidery beads
Fabric pens
Embroidery needles
Embroidery threads
Normal threads
Calico Fabric (cheapest)
Rip and cut the fabric into A5 pieces

From doing this workshop proposal I have learnt that there are many things that need to be considered on the groups behalf as well as who the workshop will be delivered to, things like abilities, learning styles, skills, availability and also financial situations will have a major affect on the planning of a workshop so it is important to alway sconsider these from the very beginning. If they are not considered people may feel left out, offended or not want to take part. Also as materials can prove to be rather costly it is important to source materials wisely and always see if you can gather/ use materials you already have at home.

 

 

 

Stockport Studios

We met at stock port studios to discuss the session plan, we were set a short task to create a 10 minutes workshop proposal with the possibility of using the idea for Stockport creative festival in a few weeks time, there was an option to later look at a number of set briefs to aid our workshop plan/idea but we were really pleased with our idea and became excited to go forward with it. As we require a more in depth discussion I will later post the finalised workshop proposal.



Art Direction - Anna Frew.
We were given an example of a short workshop, we were given 4 sheets of coloured paper followed by an explanation of 'bleach bypass' (Photoshop). we then picked a piece of fruit or a vegetable and placed it on the most suitable/appealing colour of paper. 

We were also told that we need to write another 10 minute workshop brief proposal but his time focusing on our personal practice,  I have thought about a number of things to consider including various knit techniques,  interesting yarn manipulations and also the age and mental state of my audience.  I will further my research into these areas and show how adaptations would be made for people with various mental health issues, disabilities and different age groups. 

Group tutorial 3/4/14

In today's tutorial we discussed the weeks workshops, feeding back to eaxh other and Clare. Although not everyone turned up for this tutorial some great points were made about the lack of overall communication in regards to the space we were given and the group in terms of role placement, it was suggested that next time we should have more communication during the initial planning phases to avoid any conflict as a lot of things changed during our workshop and this isn't always going to work out.

We were also advised to demonstrate more artist research to inspire the children more.
Clare also gave us some really useful advice to keep in mind, she said " fake it til you make it " because it's almost like acting, always show authority especially when you feel out of your depth.

When approaching older children during workshops, if you feel the need to comment on their work you need to be able to follow up your opinion with constructive reasoning as to why youblike or dislike their outcomes.  Also give suggestions of ways to improve things, give examples of artists and designers who work in similar ways.  After all we are 'Empowering them to make creative choices'.

After workshops you should communicate and talk to the schools for their own feedback. 

Abraham Moss High School - Zombie Apocalypse Window Boxes

 

 Our lesson plan...

 

 

 

The group decided to meet early to ensure we had everything we needed and to make sure we were set up on time. As we began setting up our area we were told we could not use our designated space due to a double booking, after a few moments of panic we packed up and moved venues to somewhere we could finally set up. Once we has laid out the tables we had a quick run through of the scripted introduction to allow us to check the sound. 

Once the stuedents arrived we did our introductions and separated the children into 5 groups, each group was then sent to a designated table/area and the tasks began...

The tables consisted of, a plastic bottle station, natural materials station, a drinks can station and a paper station. At each station they were given a set task... (explain tasks) while the four tables were getting on with their task the 5th group would visit the special collections archive.

During the day we had a 30 minute rotation system where the groups all moved to the next table for the next task, it was very interesting to walk around and see everything come together. Even the teachers got involved...

It was lovely to see many of  of the children smiling throughout the day, and also to see people helping each other and working as a team. 

As a group we thought we would have to encourage the children to think about the scenarios and imagine actually being in that situation, at first they seemed slightly confused but as the day went on they became so confident in their making and even started coming up with their own scenarios to justify their made objects.

For the final task the groups were renumbered and asked to go to separate tables again, we gave them a small table in the middle of the room with very limited materials. They were called up one table at a time and told to collect materials to make themselves a defensive weapon to fight off the zombies, they were only allowed one trip so had to pick carefully.

Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of this workshop and I would love to do it again, we all worked as a team and co-operated really well, a great amount of effort was given by us all (Well done everyone).

The days creations displayed with our zombie posters.........

 

I think that this workshop turned out extremely well, I belive that the children had a fantastic day spent at the school of art and they felt comfortable joining in with each task that was set. Once all of the tasks had been completed we gave the children feedback sheets and an individual certificate that they could each take home. There was a lot of positive feedback from the children and most of them particularly enjoyed the plastic bottle and the natural materials stations as they felt most creative at them. The only negative feedback involved wanting more time on each task and not enjoying the drinks can task as much as the others as they found it quite difficult.

After reading the feedback sheets I felt really proud to have made some of the children feel really confident in themselves, to me this is an important step in life (becoming more confident) and to know that as a group we encoraged someone to develop their creativity and confidence with just one workshop makes me feel wonderful.

 

 

From this workshop experience, I feel that I have learnt a lot in terms of how to deal with unexpected issues such as a last minute room change leading to layout issues and compromising specific table objectives and how this can affect the workshop organisers, and or cause tension and conflict between them when there is a large number. In comparison to organising a workshop with a small group of people, working in a larger group has definitely proven more difficult as communication is quite often mislead or completely lost. I will use this experience to help with future workshops by ensuring each member of the group knows that communication is key when organising an event.