On Monday I went to a JCT cluster day for Art CBA 1. I’m so glad I got to go to this as it was extremely informative and allowed for asking questions on assessment. I also gained further details on the overall structure of the new Junior Cycle as a whole. One aspect that was really interesting and hugely beneficial was taking part in a simulated SLAR meeting. We had to look at a students’ work and select what descriptor best suited the students work. The JCT facilitator assumed the role of the students’ art teacher and stated they thought the work was “In Line with Expectation”, myself and another AT then went through the work and had to select a descriptor that best fit with the work of the student. We took a really thorough response to the work, looking at the students’ notebook, final work and reading their annotations. It was also really beneficial having the insight from the ‘teacher’ into the work of the student, they were able to point out anything of interest that we didn’t connect which was great. In the end we awarded the student with the “Above Expectations” descriptor, we did however consider this student for the ‘Exceptional’ descriptor however felt from reading the description of this descriptor that the student was not quite at this level. Overall it was an extremely informative day and I look forward to going to the CBA 2 one when I am teaching next year.
Tuesday morning was the last lesson learners had in their TY Art block as such they needed to get their work completed. I had absolutely everything ready to get started however TY’s were called to assembly for a short media interview on road safety. Myself nor my host AT had not been aware of this as we had thought the only disruption to their timetable was for the last two classes. It was unfortunate that the last art class for this group of transition years was almost cut in half as such learners had to really work hard to get everything completed. Learners worked really well and everyone was really giving their all to get their work completed. I had advised learners that their work was due to be displayed in NCAD and a representative of NCAD may come in to visit this lesson (unfortunately this didn’t occur) however I do think this really gave them the motivation as they wanted the best version of their work to be on display. I really enjoyed working with this group of transition years. It was challenging at times but in a different way to a group who has opted to pick art. This unit of learning has really pushed me to make work that is process and concept led rather than such a focus on creating a well-rounded piece of work. I feel this therefore fits really well into the ideologies of the new Junior and Senior cycle. This unit of learning really pushed me out of my comfort zone working with learners who had never done art before however I feel I made good decisions in relation to adapting the final outcome, I was nervous to change my final outcome but I am so glad now that I did and I followed my gut.
On Tuesday evening I had my LCA team teaching class, this was the first class where every learner was in, there is always in excess of four learners absent for every lesson. This is great to see however it is also problematic with it being the second last lesson of the unit of learning. I worked with absent learners and differentiated for them and got them to create 2D wire drawings rather than getting them to start creating components of the 3D form. All absent learners had the outline of the bird done so I got them to trace this shape out on a spare sheet and create zentangle drawings in this space. As it was only a single class, I advised them to focus on create their zentangle patterns through referencing resource images from nature (Patterns that exist in nature) and through discussing the work of support study artist Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. My host AT worked with learners who were more advanced and helped them with connecting their wings. This is crucial to the form of the birds. I am more concerned with the birds being fully formed 3D works rather than being less formed but highly decorative. I will get some learners who have almost completed their sculptural bird to create patterns using coloured wire in the areas where there is no wire. Additionally, they could add small strands of wire to create feathers on their birds-this could be introduced with one learner who is really enjoying working in wire.
As usual after my 5thYear art history class on Wednesday I went over to the other art room (the art room I’m in on Thursdays). I have done this for the majority of the lessons in the unit of learning and find although time consuming it is highly effective as it gives me time to set up without worrying about getting everything done in a short amount of time and get everything prepared. There wasn’t as much preparation involved as there has been in previous lessons however, I needed to get the two white boards prepared with notes and visuals. I do this so as learners can refer back to key tasks and checklist throughout lesson. I also do this as I have a limited amount of time to set up on Thursday morning due to the building being open a lot later than the main building.
On Thursday I had my final supervisor visit, this was also my last solo teaching class as I had team teaching LCA’s this evening and 2ndYear CBA tomorrow morning. My solo teaching classes on Friday evening were cancelled as there is a Positive Mental Health talent show concert. Learners were at a variety of stages which can be challenging when you’re approaching the end of a unit of learning. I think because of this I was too ambitious with what I thought I could cover. This is a strong unit of learning; a lot of planning and resources are evident however I possibly focused more on the finished product than on the learning that was occurring in the class. I think there needs to always be a balance between these and in this case the product outweighed the learning and student voice. I didn’t spend enough time discussing the support study artist, I felt I had to focus on the task at hand and as a result the discussion of the support study artist suffered as a result. Learners were familiar to the work of Marilyn Mac Gregor as I have discussed this artist in the previous lesson. I could however have spent more time discussing possible further uses for books. One learner suggested if they were to make a book with all the hybrid in it-what would this “unconventional zoo” look like? This was a really interesting statement that could have been explored further, I definitely would explore this further if I were to repeat this unit of learning again. I was possibly too ambitious, as it was my last day of the unit of learning and learners were at a variety of stages I knew I had to have a student task relevant to the theme but not an entirely new unit of learning. I decidedto conduct student tasks based around their lunchtime exhibition. This could have been a separate short unit of learning in itself possibly correlating to the gallery module. I broke learners into mini groups and gave them detailed sheets outlining their role in preparing for the exhibition. I do think this was a good idea but needed more time to develop. The advertisement committee took inspiration from the class collaborative print book this being said I may have been too leading for this and allowed learners to create their advertisement without my influence, this is definitely something I need to work on furthering my own personal teacher development.
Overall, I really enjoyed my teaching placement experience in PME 2, this has been a really difficult year, I have become much stronger as a person this year, more so than I ever thought I could. In addition to this I feel I have really developed as a teacher and built up a wide range of projects across the three art strands. I feel more confident in the classroom and no longer feel worried about discipline in the classroom. I have identified the importance of constant reflection and relating to the learner in terms of their interests and building up their skills in the process.
-E.Moran
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