College One: Blog Focus- Reflection...

My aim throughout working at DACA was to gain as much work experience as I possibly could. As I would like my future career to be in teaching, my main goal at DACA was to figure out what specific age range I would be most suitable to work with. When working with different ages at DACA, I realised that I enjoyed working with multiple ages rather than the one, I think this is because each age surprised me. I only worked with Year 7's and Year 10's but the gap between the 2 was huge. I enjoyed working with Year 7's because of how imaginative they are but I also enjoyed working with Year 10's as the ones I worked with were knowledgeable, committed and open as well as appreciative of any help I gave them.

My expected outcome for the workshops was limited to the outcome we received. I may have put myself down as well as my group by having such a small expectation but the outcome was amazing and I was thrilled with the feedback from both the students and Louise as well as how relieved the group was that the workshop ran smoothly and the outcome was successful.

My greatest challenge that I had to overcome was my confidence and being confident when approaching the students, I found this very challenging. To overcome it, I gave it little thought and just forced myself to be confident. I think I realised that I have knowledge and expertise that could be beneficial to them and if I do not approach them now, I never would and if I could not do it now, would I ever make it as a teacher. Making myself approach the students was beneficial for me as the students began approaching me for help, it made me feel useful.

Individually I put all my effort into everything I did. However, when working in a group I could have done a lot more and got more involved. I felt that sometimes my voice was not heard because I was not confident enough to argue my ideas further. Everyone in the group got a long and we all played our part in making the workshop and this Unit successful. I have used my organisational skills, my communication skills and my practical and technical knowledge throughout this Unit, I also managed my workload, became resourceful when choosing materials and I worked collaboratively. As a group, we all set goals, tasks, we solved problems when they occurred, negotiated ideas and most importantly worked as a team. It has definitely been an enjoyable experience.

To further this line of work I would continue to gain work experience in the field of teaching. As I have missed a lot of the time allocated by DACA through doing other voluntary work and being ill, I would like to have the opportunity to work at DACA again. I would also like to work at other schools and with different ages to gain more experience and to ensure myself that teaching is the right choice for me, as a career.

From this Unit I have learnt a lot about myself and my confidence has certainly grown. Working at DACA gave me the great opportunity to gain a realisation of what being a teacher or a teacher's assistant is like.   

College One: Blog Focus- Learning...

Throughout this opportunity of work experience, I have felt my confidence grow. As this Unit has been about planning workshops and all it involves, the practical side has been limited. Drawing, experimenting and using sketchbooks has usually been a visual way for me to document my projects throughout university, not using them to demonstrate my experience has been hard. On the other hand, I have found using blogger on a daily basis has become a part of my regular routine and it has helped my be more descriptive and thoughtful when reporting my days events.

Planning our chosen workshop from the beginning was vague as I missed the original proposal because I did some volunteering at Z-arts. I was informed of the initial idea after and even though I agreed it was a great idea, the details I was given were limited but it was the very start of the workshop. We had group meetings where we discussed the workshop and how the day would run and everyone contributed. I do not think there was any disagreements but I do think some of the group were heard more than others. If everyone had slightly different ideas, the idea chosen was down to the group majority. I found putting the PowerPoint together was difficult, we all met to do this but as it did not get fully finished that day, each took it home and individually worked on it, some of us then brought it back and areas of each were put into one. Only my images from my PowerPoint were selected which was fine but I would of liked some of the text on the artists to have been used as I thought it gave out concept more meaning and contextual references. This was still used but it was not evident on the PowerPoint.

Working at DACA has been an amazing experience so far. It has helped me develop a realistic idea on how a teacher's life is ran daily and what hinders they encounter, as well as the benefits. What I found encouraging about my experience at DACA was the children's gratitude of my help and this was an wonderful feeling. The hindrance I found in some of my classes was one or two disruptive students but with one to one attention they settled down rather quick.   

Working with people from different fields in Art has been beneficial in demonstrating how different we plan and work. I consider myself an organised person and without having a plan set in stone or hard evidence of what I am going to say and do, I am out of my comfort zone and this Unit has definitely proved this. Others in the group can leave things to the last minute but that unsettled me, it has been an experience working this way and it has improved my confidence but I prefer working more prepared which is why I felt more at ease on the second run of the workshop.

College One: Blog Focus: Planning workshops...

When working with different age groups my methods of how I speak or approach them does not differ but the confidence it takes for me to approach them does change, especially when approaching older children because they may know more then I do and this makes me ask myself 'how can I help them'.

My strengths have always lied with organisation but working in a group, I consider this to be my downfall. This is because I need to have a detailed plan of what I am going to say/do/act/prepare whereas others in the group do not need this much preparation. Preparation for me gives me confidence because I know what I am going to do. I cannot 'blag' my way through a workshop, whereas this is where other people's strengths lie in the group. This has been challenging for me whilst working in a group, we make decisions on the largest amount it would suit, by doing this I have learned to be more adaptable but without a workshop being completely organised, I feel slightly uncomfortable about approaching the workshop. After doing it once, I feel more prepared and ready for the next sessions.

Our proposed outcome is a large canvas piece that will be showered with colour from recycled materials that the children will turn into paints. We collaboratively selected this workshop as it had the one thing our individual workshops had in common, this being mark-making.

The workshop duration ran smoothly until the very end when we began hanging up the balloons, the children became less interested in filling the balloons and became more interested in messing about with the materials and not focusing on what they should have been. I think this is because they could not get involved with hanging the balloons up because the device was to high for them to reach and if they pulled to hard on it, they could have pulled it down. We decided as the 'teachers' to hang them ourselves whilst the children carried on filling the balloons. Maybe they were less supervised and took advantage of this, next time I would suggest that some of us supervise the children and maybe get them to mark-make with the left over paints to keep them busy.

We agreed with Louise that we would buy most of the materials and give her the receipts and she would refund us and this seemed to work well. Some materials we contributed ourselves. We chosen to mainly use recyclable materials because it adds to the concept of using 'recycled materials and making the students aware of the positives of this'. As there was 10 'teachers' to 15 students, they was enough of us to go around and help each student when they needed it.

For the next workshop, we are not using white spirit as we think this is one of the reasons to why some of the balloons popped before we wanted them too. I would also add more background on our artist influences and to just be more confident.

Contextual references are important for showing the children where we gained our ideas from and to give them content to why they are doing this exercise. I had to do some research into this area and gather artists that I believed to be influential in why we are doing this workshop and those who inspired the processes we was going to use. From running the workshop I have learn't to be more adaptable, not to be as nervous, get as much involved as possible, enjoy the processes and be proud by how much the children seemed to enjoy it.

College One: Blog Focus- Organisations and getting involved...

The brief for DACA was broad, it seemed that Louise was open to any suggestions as long as that it would help and interest the students. It was clear from the College One's brief that a workshop had to be involved at some point, whether it was an individual workshop or a group one. We all started off considering individual workshops but I think we decided to do a group workshop so that the overall workshop idea could be bigger. The overall idea stemmed from Rory's individual idea of making paints but everyone in the group was interested and involved mark-making in their individual workshops so it was clear that mark-making would be a prominent idea in the group workshop.

It was 10 'teachers' with a class of 15 students so we was aware that there was enough of us to run a workshop this big. We will be working in the same group each week but the class group and size will vary, we will also change roles each week, so that everyone will get the chance to present the PowerPoint and work at the other stations more. If in the other sessions the group size will be bigger, we would need to have objects/materials to blend, more cups and maybe more equipment such as: scissors, hammers and rolling pins. This was a Year 7 group and there attention span near to the end lapsed, if it was an older group I think there attention span would work fine for our original time-plan of the day, if it is another Year 7 class, I would shorten the length of time to fill and hang the balloons and ask for feedback directly from the children instead.

My first impressions of working at the school was that I found it over-whelming working with different age ranges but I also find this same aspect exciting because what I did during the day with these groups changes. I consider the older classes to be more grateful for our help but they would not ask for it, we had to approach them, doing this regularly helps me build on my confidence and as each day goes by at the school, I can feel my confidence growing. Younger classes want more interaction, they would shout me over, ask me  how to do things and to show them how, this for me is encouraging. I enjoy working with Year 9+ because I know I am helping them and they are becoming informed but working with Year 7's is more interesting and rewarding because I feel like they could benefit from my experiences more.

College One: Workshop Activities...

Throughout the workshops, I encountered a broad range of materials and approaches to how a workshop could run. I responded to each activity and an outcome was produced for all of them, however, I liked some workshops more than others.  I particularly enjoyed working over someone else's work! This task demonstrated the idea of adapting myself to suit and work around a particular problem. It made me focus on risk assessing my workshop ideas and always having other possibilities in case any errors occurs.

I preferred working with materials because of my Textiles background but I did enjoy exploring the elements of 3-d and the idea of forming a shape using limited resources. For example: making a Totem pole that had the theme of Manchester using only railcard tickets, card and shredded paper. I did not like working with sweets, they made my hands sticky and the smell was sickly, I do however, understand why children would get excited to work with them. I found 2 workshop tasks to be challenging and these were the Origami Crane bird and the dot to dot. Considering I had the instructions on how to make a Crane bird directly in front of me, I found this exercise more difficult than I anticipated, it took up a lot of time. Creating a dot to dot using only 50 dots was not any easier, having limitations on workshops is what challenges our creativity. I ended up having 50 dots but 51 numbers because one dot was used twice, I underestimated a simple like a dot to dot, I need to be able to recognise what a suitable workshop is for my class' age.

Working individually adds more pressure on one's self but working in pairs or groups allows the ideas to bounce of each other and evolve. I think working in groups creates a better outcome because it is a collaborative of ideas but I also think it can hinder quieter people in a group. Every student will have an idea, it is about drawing it out and building on their confidence's to express them.

These workshops have made me aware of a variety of elements that I will ensure and think about when preparing my workshops, for example: all the students will respond to each tasks differently, to encourage the students creativity and imagination, some students characters and personalities are more dominant than others, to be aware of other people's distractions, limited resources can be a good thing and that clearing up is just as important as the activities as it signifies the completion of one.  

College One: Research and First Impressions...

The Stockport Introductory Session on Monday 11th March, made me feel comfortable in my choosing of College One. I knew College One would take me out of my comfort zone and meeting everyone else that is doing College One was a good way to start. The Ice Breaker of getting into pairs and using the knowledge of their partners to put onto a cup was eventful and enjoyable, it helped everyone settle in.

All of the lectures done so far by Lynn Setterington and Kirsten Aubrey have prepared me in how to approach preparing and running a workshop. I found most of the practical workshops challenging, they all placed me out of my comfort zone: they changed the dynamics of the group numbers, they only allowed me limited resources and I had to constantly be stimulating mine as well as other people's minds of creativity. Throughout the workshops, working in pairs and teams was encouraged, I surprisingly found out that I liked working in groups but still shied away from expressing our results at feedback time. As most of these workshops were aimed at helping us plan and produce our own workshop, I feel like my strengths lean more towards being organised, I see myself organising the materials we would need, budget costs, workshop sheets, lesson plans, time management. I would consider this to be my role, from this I would consider seeing myself working as part of a group in creating a workshop. But from all of the variety throughout the workshops, I was able to adapt and this boosted my confidence, so maybe I am ready to work individually.

Choosing the Organisation that would be best for me was a difficult decision, I narrowed it down to a possible 3: Venture Arts (working creatively with people who have disabilities), Z-arts ("to inspire generations of young people from Manchester and beyond to use creativity to reach their potential") and finally Darwen Aldridge Community Academy (a high school). I chosen Darwen Aldridge Community Academy (DACA) because I felt like it was more beneficial for my future career and for applying onto a PGCE  course. Louise Klinck also made the opportunity sound amazing and I wanted to be a part of it.