Category: Art Teacher

Charity Week

28/10/2018

Positive postcards.

In the teaching standards, teachers are required to fulfil wider professional responsibilities and one part of this is to make a positive contribution to the wider life and ethos of the school. One way to do this is to engage in enrichment activities, which includes school clubs, I'm currently helping with the photography club, and during week commencing 15th October it was my house's charity week and below is how I was involved.

Firstly, I arranged a fund raising activity, which took part in the morning breaks. My original idea was to have a postcard auction. However, after talking to the house manager we adapted the idea for the students to buy cards, decorate them, and then they would be delivered by the prefects around the school. On the back of the cards, I filled it with information about our house's chosen charity: the Breck Foundation. I then designed a poster, which had a slot for physically mailing the cards through.

Tuesday lunchtime I helped some students with cake baking. I can't remember the last time I applied Royal Icing, so that was a challenge. On Friday, I was part of the team of teachers fielding in a game of Rapid Rounders, which was fun especially as it was a lovely sunny lunchtime.

Open Evening

14/10/2018

Recently, the school that I am training in held
an open evening for potential students and their parents. My involvement began with preparing a display of year 11 self portraits. With only half a board to work with, I used a technique as discribed in The Art & Design Teacher's Handbook by Hodge (p77), which suggested a random overlapping arrangement for limited space. On the right is how it came out.

On the evening, I headed up to the art department where my role was to support the staff and I was soon talking to some of the parents about the department. I was able to talk about some of the lessons I had witnessed and the various techniques the students got to try and experiment with. Having walked into Food Technology, one of the conversations I had with a dad was about both the theory and practical sides of the subject, as current students cooked biscuits for the parents to ice.

Next, I had the great opportunity to walk around the school and see what other departments and staff did, which also meant talking to even more parents about the school in general. It was such a useful activity and I especially found the science labs engaging as I am interested in STEAM collaborations between the arts and science.

I love plasma balls.

Back in the art department, I got to talk to some of the volunteer current students about what they were working on, offering guidance where I could, such as a variation on a piece based on feathers through using white on black paper. I also got to talk to a few more parents too.

It was a long evening, but the school certainly showed itself at its best, and I am honoured to have had a role in that and to be part of the staff even temporarily.

Changes

8/8/2018

Two of the many new books I have/will need over the coming year.

Big changes are coming in September, which is why I am writing this post.

Since returning to England in 2014, I've continued to work as an illustrator, clients have included both National Trust Stowe and National Trust Bourne Mill, and as an artist, having drawings selected into two London exhibitions and many commissions. Starting in 2014, I have been teaching art and giving art-themed illustrated talks and courses, working with organisations such as The Roald Dahl Museum and Old Bank Studios, Harwich. That will all continue. However, I will not continue with art group demos and/or workshops, nor private classes during weekdays.

What I have discovered over the last four years, is that I love teaching art and I have decided to expand on that, so in September I am going to be training to teach art to secondary school students through a school based system. Please note the UK government adverts about bursaries for trainee teachers does NOT apply to art teacher trainees! Therefore, a big change will be a severe lack of travel and days out over the next school year as my saving will not stretch to it. Visitors always welcome here in Suffolk :)

Over the next year, I'm not sure how much time I'll have for creating my own work nor whether the daily social media posts can continue (maybe weekly?. Please bear with me during this transition year. Thank you.

Charity Week

Open Evening

Changes

About me

Tags

Archives