Miss Art of Teaching

Today a Year 7 student purchaesd the right to teach my lesson using 100 virtual rewards points. Mr Pulvirenti saved up his virtual rewards points to teach the class how to create a cartoon self portrait. The class worked beautifully. Students were on their best behaviour and some wanted to continue the activity at home.

I've been noticing a few things in my classroom and in other art classrooms across the globe (through engaging in a number of online Teaching platforms). There is a sense that if one tried in art, then one should receive an A. On Friday, I had a student who was displeased with her B and as a result starting going through other students' artworks and loudly proclaiming that she did better than the A students. I stopped the entire class and focused on addressing the differences between an A, B, C, D E. Stopping students from working is not the ideal method but sometimes it is important to clarify a few things and in turn becomes a valuable lesson for them. I also spoke about work ethic using the two new posters that I have designed for my classroom (based on an Instagram post shared by an art teacher).  I used the hamburger analogy to explain the differences between the grades while referring to the expectations of the assessment task. A link to the 'Hamburger Anal...

I did a bit of marking this morning- Year 11 Senior Visual Arts exam papers. I only marked question 1 and started question 2. Glad to see that my students are doing well minus a few who need to read the question carefully and use the keywords in their response. It will also help if they do more than list what they can see in the plates (unknown artworks) and think of how the artists are challenging the audience or how they address social issues. I have stapled the marking criteria and an example of a teacher response (my attempt) for each question. This way students can compare their responses to the marking criteria and look at how I answered the same questions. I also provide them with an individual feedback. When Term 2 starts, I will need to spend at least half a lesson to go through what was working well and what needs improvement. There will be more revision throughout the year using old test papers to get them ready for Year 12 HSC. Above: Far left is the teacher's ...

Lately, the posts have been about the Term 1 holidays. I will be going back to my marking mode on Tuesday. Holidays started on the 8th of April. On the first day, I went to the Easter Show Carnival and then spent the next four days on marking essays. For the last two days and a half, I have been trying to meet up with all my close friends. The Easter break brings everyone together as most professions are on public holidays. I technically still have a week left but I need to finish all my senior marking and start on their reports. The challenging life of balancing work life and leisure time. Today we (high school friends) planned on going to the Sculptures at Scenic World at the Blue Mountains but all the tickets sold out. I was looking forward to experiencing the site-specific sculptures in the natural rainforest. Instead, we improvised and went to food cafes and The Three Sisters and Leura Cascades Waterfall in the Blue Mountains. I still managed to get some inspirations for my art...