PME Blog snr

Welcome to my PME blog. Within this space, I will reflect on the shadowing period of my teaching practice, which follows me in my preparation towards taking my classes alone. I will discuss workshops that take place in the Crawford College, where I can experience the methods of art making that my pupils will experience, seeing through the eyes of both student and teacher. I will also bring my experience from UCC, in which I will reflect on the teaching methodologies that I will use in my own teaching practice. With this blog, I hope to map my progress of this year, and to show the growth that has occurred in both my artistic and teaching practice through the experiences from UCC and the Crawford College. 

The pupils of today have grown up with technology. This particular year group in particular, from the time they were babies they would have had their pictures taken and uploaded onto some form of social media. The majority of my pupils have access to the internet through phones, laptops, tablets or other examples of technology that can access the internet. it is safe to assume that the majority of their communication is on some sort of internet platform or another. To expect them to go from having the internet in the palm of their hand, from being quite learned in using technology to making them write in notepads/ copybooks and giving them handouts in class, seems a tad nonsensical. By introducing technology into the classroom, they are learning that these technologies, particularly their phones, are not just for selfies or for talking to their friends. Smartphones are a tool that have been present in the lives of these pupils. By showing it in a new context, and by turning i...

These videos can be very helpful when teaching pupils how to draw the features of the face. However I wouldn't use this as the absolute must. It is merely a guide line. As every individual has individual features, these videos are a starting point. It is up to the pupils themselves to be sure to look at their subject and to take note of whether the lips are thin, if the subject has thin or wide nostrils and if they have heavy eye-lids or not.  For many pupils they would not have drawn with the requirement to detail and proportion before. They will need to be patient with themselves and not to focus on creating a picture perfect image. If that was the aim of the exercise, photography would be the choice of medium. When it come to drawing, the hand, as well as the eye, of the artist is to be seen in the work. there may be a particular feature that the artist focuses on, the artist may make the eyes slightly larger than as is actually there. this makes the drawing more ...

Today's class seemed to go well. I started with the PowerPoint presentation of Font. The pupils’ were engaged and responded well to it. The different between fonts and logos was made clear and the affect of a font can affect how the word is depicted. From there the pupils were split into groups and were given a word and answer these questions, What would it feel like? What would it taste like? What would it smell like? How heavy would it be? Some pupils had difficulty with the concept of a word having a smell or taste. Some also seemed to be a tad stubborn. They responded somewhat negatively, saying that words don’t have a smell, however by reminding them that they are in fact artists, that by using their creativity the can create another sense into something visual. From there the pupils would answer the questions individually and then discuss their answers with one another. I went from table to table to see how the discussion was progressing. The discus...

In September 2018, I attended the Art Teachers Association of Ireland Conference. One of the workshops that was held at this conference was held by Aine Andrews, where she showed samples of Batik techniques as well as finished examples of Batik. We were given the opportunity to test out the tools used for batik, such as cantings and tjantings. We were shown both the dip method as well as using sponges and brushes. While with the old Junior Certificate, it was required that the piece of batik should use the dip method, or at the very least, have been dipped twice. Aine admitted that she found that sponging helped to create a more efficient design, that was less time consuming and allowed pupils to have a bit more control over their finished designs. However, with the new Junior Cycle, there is more freedom with designing a batik piece. There is more focus on the development of the research and the critical and contextual elements, rather than focusing on requirem...

The class began with reflecting on the work from the previous class and discussing the thoughts the pupils had seeing their work on the wall rather than just on the desk. Not all pupils participated in the conversation I noticed so I moved forward with the lesson. I allowed the pupils to begin working on their fonts made with coloured paper rather than the white paper as we had done so in the previous class. Some pupils were displeased with the method they had used previously with the white paper did not work as well as with the coloured paper. Due to nerves, I started my PowerPoint presentation in the middle of the class rather than the start of it as I had intended. However I began the presentation, showing the pupils samples of works using Font by different artists. Splitting them into groups I had the pupils interpret the works in a Think Pair Share exercise. Each pupil had to participate. Giving a time limit of two minutes helps to have the pupils invested. Each group p...