Saturday, June 28, 2014

Faces in Preschool

This week the preschooler's at the Banyan Centre learned about shapes and facial features while making wonderful faces of their own. 







Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Teaching to all levels

English is hard. Teaching English to ten students who are at five different levels is hard. So far I have tried to adopt the strategy of my ELL professor by scaffolding the content while keeping it a level above some students, so that they must "reach" for understanding. I begin the lessons simply, by introducing new vocabulary and phrases. Then I have the students repeat, repeat, repeat. (Sometimes I see eyes rolling). From there we "level up" to new content.
Here is where the struggle begins, and I wish I had four ears and three mouths. Half of the class processes the new content and responds successfully. The other half begin grabbing my arm and asking me twenty things in Thai. I try to split myself between each side, but the minute I turn my back, the focus is lost.
I'm considering new approaches, and have begun holding the accelerated group back for more concentrated learning. They are all girls and always beg me to teach them drawing as well.
I'm also trouble shooting this and searching for alternate strategies. Fingers crossed!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Portrait day

Today was all about portraits - the students got a kick out of the various techniques. 
Check out their styles/interpretations/techniques!

















Thursday, June 19, 2014

Redefining Success

This week has been full of discovery, learning and adjusting. In a lot of ways I am designing a curriculum from square one for each after-school class. In designing each lesson I focus on a few things, teach, observe, and adjust.
I start off by trying to create an environment that is safe and conducive to learning. This involves a lot of songs, silly games, and me making a fool out of myself. Taking my dad's advice, I try to offer multiple chances for Success in the classroom, both in art and in English. This will give the students an energy for learning while encouraging them at multiple levels.
I try to incorporate a lot of speaking and interacting, as much of their English learning so far has been through books and handouts. I hate handouts. They are a sure way to stifle creative thinking, and only encourage "right answers". I understand the draw of handouts, because the students can feel success and check their answers. But all I see the students doing is speeding through the sheets and copying each other. So I try to stay away from handouts.

Encouraging speaking and interacting is my biggest challenge. I battle the system that the students feel comfortable in (rote learning and handouts), and I battle the comprehension gap (I don't speak Thai).
But I will keep on pushing through, modeling, and encouraging. Maybe one of these days my students will great me with more than " I am fine, how are you?"

As far as art goes, similar struggles arise.
In an English-speaking class room, I would have the opportunity to encourage creative divergent thinking, multiple interpretations, and self expression through a variety of strategies. The lack of verbal communication here limits me to modeling, showing examples, and crossing my fingers that someone will think outside the box. Just one student thinking outside the big usually has a domino effect, and all the students rush to create their own unique works.

So far the two staples of my art lessons for the younger groups have been : interesting technique + lots of materials.
Sometimes it works to do a step-by-step example. Sometimes it works to let them loose and hand out new materials every ten minutes. Sometimes it works to give them a huge collaborative sheet of paper and step back and observe.
I'm trying everything.
I spend a few hours planning, load up my bag with art goodies, ride into the village, and prepare to be flexible.

A really helpful study that I've been reading about, was a 6 week after school art and literacy program for children experiencing homelessness in the US (University of Memphis). The program was created from a Resilience Theory viewpoint, and it focused on creating a safe environment for creative expression about the self and the surrounding world, focusing on the strengths of the students.
The researchers had to decide to throw Literacy out the window, due to the inconsiworkncy of classes, and the restriction on time, but their art program was hugely successful. They did not measure success in the traditional sense of good grades and attendance, but instead measured the success of their program in three ways.

1. Engagement with the art making process. If students were engaged and focused on the art work, it was a success.
2. Art creation and Pride. If students created work and took pride in their accomplishments and sought to share their efforts, the lesson was well received.
3. Positive attitude


I am processing these ideas and considering how I will measure the success of this program.
Perhaps this study will influence my understanding/planning.


One thing I'd like to do more is celebrate the student's work. Often they leave the work with me, as they have nowhere to put it, but I'd like to spend some closure time with each student's piece, whether that's a group "discussion" in sign language , or a one-on-one talk.






Saturday, June 14, 2014

Painting in Preschool

Once a week I teach art to preschoolers at the Banyan Centre. The Banyan Centre is a Montessori-inspired school for Shan refugees, Thai nationals, and expat children from Pai. It's a really lovely school, with a mixture of energetic staff and adorable children.
This week, as an introduction to painting, I went over colours with a hide-and-seek
game, and then taught a lesson in painting using sponges, q- tips, and pastels. The kids got quite a kick out of using these unconventional materials, and produced some lovely green, blue and red paintings.
I find that with young students, it's really successful to have lessons that have multiple exciting steps that build upon themselves. It keeps the students engaged, but also allows for creative reinterpretation of the steps.
The lesson started with just the non- nappers, but by the end of the lesson, all the nappers had snuck in and begun playing with the paint. It was a teacher's dream to be surrounded by children begging for paper and paint as they dove into the materials.

Check out their paintings!







Sketchbooks

This week was all about handing out the sketchbooks and getting to know the characteristics of each class.
Each group comes with different challenges, surprises and gifts.

The rock village students haven't had the afterschool Program since last July, but are surprisingly bright in English and are very well behaved. In their sketchbooks on the first day, I had them decorate the front page and back page with " English " and "Art" on each side. We will be using these books as sketchbooks and as visual dictionaries throughout the next months. They got really into decorating the pages in their own personal styles.
Because I had shown them a slideshow about my home/interests/family, I asked them to draw their family on page 1.  It seems that the boys gravitate towards drawing anime-esque characters, while the girls ( perhaps because they're older?) try to draw more realistically.
One student lives with just his grandma, so familt was a sensitive thing for him to draw, which I wish I had known or planned for. He was fine, but I wonder if was the best decision to start the class with a possibly sensitive topic of Family.
You can see their unique drawings below.






Sunday, June 8, 2014

Painting and Photography

Saturday was my first day of really teaching!
I spent the morning with  a group of vivacious, charming 9-11 year olds ( with two four year olds joining us as well). These students live in a sharecropper's village, and are all going to Thai school in town. Their village is just off the main road (which is full of restaurants, 7-11,  and guest houses) and down a few dirt roads and all of a sudden the houses are just bare bones thatch huts, kids are running around after chickens, the families are not present, except for some men grinding corn.
The parents in one village all work in the river - picking up rocks from the river floor to be sold for building houses in town. I didn't see them working but it sounds back-breaking.
The kids were sweet and energetic; grabbing mangos off the tree, and ripping into them with their teeth, and then giggling and chasing each other around the village.
We started class by writing our names on whiteboard sheets (a really handy teaching tool ). The kids got into decorating the posters and kept on asking me to spell "I love you" so that they could write "I love you Lizzie" and giggle.
I showed them a slideshow of my family, what I like to do, and lots of pictures of snow in Pakistan- they loved looking at it all and calling out the colours of everything.
We then moved on to tackling nature, and learning about leaves/trees and flowers. Each student had to write the word on their board before drawing it. And before they could move on they all practised speaking. I found that they were really eager to draw the leaves and trees, and that they got really into adding more elements.
I felt like Mary Poppins as I pulled out my paints and handed out huge sheets of paper. They paired up and began painting natural elements on their sheets. They were really into it for a while until they somehow collectively remembered that they had some white plaster figures that needed painting. They all rushed out of the hut and disappeared for a minute. I was very confused. But they soon returned and eagerly started painting their bears, ducks and motorcycles. I hesitated and wanted to ask them to stop, but how can you resist when the creative energy is flowing?
After they had finished their plaster figures they returned to their paintings.
Ten minutes later they all got up again and began washing the brushes and cleaning the floor of the hut.
I, of course, had much bigger plans involving pastels and presentations in English. But it seems like here the kids run the show!  
What a treat to finally be painting with the kids, and to see their creative sides!