Miss Art of Teaching

I know it is only the start of the term BUT time flies! I am trying to prepare my students for their Yearly Examination, which consists of short responses and long responses (essays). I recently received a set of textbooks from my head teacher. It has been so useful to prepare my theory lessons and to help students formulate their answers. If you teach senior visual arts classes, I suggest the Senior Artwise Visual Arts 11-12 Second edition. It can be purchased as a hard or digital copy. Every week I plan on introducing students to a new artist. For every artist, the textbooks cover the art marking practice and provides examples of artworks. The best part about this textbook is the additional artist statements (quotes) and written responses by previous students. I also love the questions regarding frames and conceptual framework. To prepare students for their essay, I came up with something cheesy - hamburger essay. In the holidays, I went to Kmart to buy a hamburger notepad. I want...

The suggested methods can be adapted into any classroom or year groups: This morning I took out several suits from an old deck of playing cards. I proceeded to cut them in half.  I passed out one-half to every  Year 11 student who walked through the door.  They were then instructed to find the other half.  This method allows them to break away from their friendship groups or from attempting the paper alone. You can carefully pair students up if you want by making sure you separate the same suit from 'close' friends. You could also pair a stronger student up with a student who may need the extra help. A good memory is important so you can distribute the cards carefully without it being obvious. For me, 'destiny' works out fine!  Once they were in their pairs, I gave them a copy of either Question 1, 2 or 3 of section 1 of a preliminary exam paper. I ended up having 3-4 groups per question.  They were then instructed to: 1. Find the ke...

Since last year, I have been using Canva to make quick poster designs and even performance tickets. Canva is a free website that allows users to make quick and simple designs. They have templates ready for users to create designs for web or print. I use it to promote things that are happening around the school since I am a Facebook admin. I tend to do it mostly for my faculty. I may revisit Canva to make a few posters for my hamburger analogy. I am missing visuals to make my resource more powerful.   This is also a great website to use with primary school or high school students. They can use it to create presentations, flyers, posters, invitations and so on. You can edit photos, add text, elements, stickers, borders and frames. A few things like stickers can cost money but that is if you choose to use specific designs. Above: An example of the working space on Canva. On the left are the design templates, on the right is your canvas to freely move things around and change ...