Week Four was filed with disruptions, boxes upon boxes of Celebrations and a Carol Service bringing the whole school together. As it was the week before Christmas and the last few days of classes in 2018 the majority of learners had checked themselves out mentally from school and were in full “chill-down” mode. This made teaching and getting work complete all the more challenging but what’s school life without a little difficulty.
We had a half day on Friday as such I didn’t have two of my classes; the carol service was also scheduled for Friday. The carol service was a really nice way to end the school term, I even joined the staff for choir practice during the week and took part in the carol service. As there was more learners in than originally anticipated there had to be two Carol Services’ to facilitate the large number. This had a knock on effect on my double 2nd year team teaching class in the morning as classes were called out early. As we were working with clay we needed to allocate ten minutes for tidying this meant it took time away from learners to complete their clay forms. This was really unfortunate as they were making great progress in the lesson and were working hard. This unit of learning is to be suspended as the learners will be starting straight into their CBA when they return in the New Year.
Really pleased with the progress that was made in today’s lesson; I demonstrated to two groups how to create texture in their cardboard banners through scoring the cardboard and revealing the corrugated layer they really enjoyed this and were very keen to get going. I worked with one group to demonstrate how to create island and bridges in their lettering. I referenced the work of the support study artist only to groups who had completed their grid lettering and were working on incorporating a style and texture to it as the other groups’ main objective was to complete their grid lettering. One of the groups who were extremely resistant in the previous lesson managed to make good progress during this lesson by completing their grid and getting half way through their grid lettering. This particular group of learners is still very difficult to motivate to do their work, learners stated they won’t be there in January and for half of February as such they don’t need to do artwork. I advised learners need to work as much as they can when they are in the lesson. I am worried about how much time I will have with this group of learners as they have work experience starting at the beginning of February for two weeks. However I know this is just how things go with TY groups, I will just have to play it by ear.
1st years started to gouge out their lino tile, I’m really pleased with how their drawings turned out, learners have put a lot of effort into them. I will be continuing this unit of learning with learners in January and will need to monitor the learners carefully due to the nature of the material and so as not to undo the hard work they have already put into the project. Unfortunately we sustained a couple of minor injuries from the lino cutters. I highlighted throughout lesson the need for safety in relation to using the bench hook, the lino cutter, and most importantly where to place my hand in relation to this. I also had notes on safety written on the whiteboard (N.B. Always keep your hand back from the blade). This being said learners still managed to sustain small cuts from placing their hands in the wrong place and from using the bench hook incorrectly (not having lino tile over in the corner as such the lino tile was not secure and made the learner more prone to accidents. When I come back after Christmas to continue the unit of learning I will do a refresher on good practice for cutting a lino tile highlighting the need for safety once again.
I am looking forward to some much needed rest over the Christmas break and to get set to dive back into my next batch of School Placement in the New Year.
-E.Moran
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