VIVIAN LOH
Head of Department (Aesthetics)
St. Joseph's Institution
Date: 27 Feb 2015
Venue: National Design Centre
Time: 3 – 530pm
I visited the National Design Centre for the first time today. I was pleasantly surprised when I was handed the Singapore Design Week Guide, and found out that Singapore is holding a design event equivalent to the Singapore Art Biennale, which I really enjoyed. I have been bringing my students out for gallery visits these 2 months, so such events are really helpful for educators like me who are trying to offer an authentic experience to a new generation of gallery goers.
The highlight of the visit to NDC was a talk cum tour at Prototyping Lab @ NDC. My art colleague from America has been sharing passionately with me about the International Makers Community and how people from all walks of life come together for projects, network and build. A few thoughts come through my mind after today’s visit: the implication of the emerging interactive art form to traditional art forms; the changes the maker space culture could have on school art studios and if there was a need to rethink the way space is organized for learning and experimentation in future the art rooms.
Date: 22 March 2015
Venue: Hilton Hotel
Time: 1-3pm
I shared with the 8 teachers about my research paper on Collaborative Dialogue today. The presentation went on for 25mins, during which I explained how I became curious with the topic, and also my key learning from the research. A very fruitful discussion followed, lasting approximately 1.5 hours. 3 things stood out for me during this sharing.
1) Hindrance to collaborative dialogue
Both primary and secondary school teachers at this sharing had observed that older students preparing for major examinations tend to be more hesitant in speaking up. These students tend to become passive receivers of information, and worried over whether what they shared during discussions was following the right format. The main objective of teaching is for students to learn, but very often, teachers become too eager to make learning ‘easy’ for the students, by coming up with formulate strategies that do not necessarily teach for learning. E.g. students are taught fix format for answering examination questions, as opposed to being facilitated to explore different answering techniques.
2) What is Collaboration?
We also attempted to expound on the true meaning of collaboration. I felt the sharing was rich because we exchanged ideas on different possibilities of how artists could involve themselves with fellow artists/ audience/ community. Fatimah also shared her learning from a training conducted by Oliver Gude, an associate professor at the University of Illinosis. We agreed that collaborative works with other disciplines should involve co-creation in the various stages of art making. Projects that involve the art students rendering only their art making ‘services’ are poor examples of collaboration.
3) Teacher-student Relationship (TSR)
Finally, we had an engaging discussion on the importance of good TSR. Teachers become good facilitators of dialogue among students when we have a good relationship with them and understand their learning needs. When students feel that they are being cared for, their level of engagement increase, and they will also be able to perform better in the subject.
Vivian has over 20 years of art teaching experience. She first taught in the Art Elective Programme at Victoria School before joining her current school in 2001. She started teaching the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in 2013. Vivian values her identity as an artist, researcher and teacher, and strives hard to balance her time in each of these roles. As the HOD of Arts & Aesthetics, she also leads a group of 6 local and international teachers in pedagogical innovations in her school.
Date: 23 March 2015
Venue: Young Audience Charter School at Kate Middleton
Time: 8-1130am
It was a great privilege for us to visit the above-mentioned school this morning. Below are the strengths that made the visit a great learning experience for me.
We had the opportunity to meet a humble yet energized school principal, who was very visionary in leading his school to explore teaching core subjects through integration of the arts. He was the main leader of the school tour, bringing us around throughout the duration of the 3.5 hours visit. It was very inspiring to see a school leader who was in tune with what was happening in every level of every class. He was an administrator who knew the level integration projects intimately, and articulated them with passion and zeal. Through him, I learnt the importance of walking the talk as a leader; and to articulate the programmes under our charge with conviction and zeal.
The school focused on collaboration n teamwork. Teachers and artists met up 4 times a week (75 mins) for collaborative planning. During these meetings, standards for the arts and core subjects were compared, and teachers tried to identify the most natural n fun connections across subjects. With the delivery of lessons, artists and teachers taught along side each other. For review and evaluation, the school appointed a Director of Arts Integration to ensure that standards across subjects were met, and projects were of significance rather than mere good-to-haves. I felt the involvement of the artists teaching along side teachers who are curriculum experts to be a genuine and ideal solution of arts integration. Although we also witnessed shortcomings such as the lack of sound pedagogical approach on the part of the artists-in-residence, the advantage of 2 brains coming together to teach the students far outweigh the disadvantages.
The school was low in funding and resources, but big on innovation and community involvement. There were many DIY initiatives. Artists’ quotes and art galleries were proudly and prominently displayed along the school corridors. On Parents’ Day, students brought the parents around the gallery to explain their artistic intentions. Artists and musicians were also brought in regularly to share and inspire. On School Beautification Day, students’ ideas were consolidated and parents, teachers, undergraduates from nearby universities came together to make quick improvements to the physical environment. Today, I am thankful to have witnessed first hand how vision, passion and creative use of resources can make learning truly meaningful for a school of young children from disadvantaged family backgrounds. It was a great privilege for us to visit the school this morning.
Date: 24 March 2015
Venue: Isidore Newman School
Time: 10-1130am
Isidore Newman School is a well-established school offering infant care service, as well as education for kindergarten, primary, middle and high school students. The school is situated in an affluent neighborhood. The students are well behaved and the facilities are new, varied and full.
Victoria was the art teacher who hosted our visit today. She is a young and pedagogically sound teacher with a few years of teaching experience. She started her class today by gathering her students to sit on a carpet where she recap the previous lesson and instructed them on what to expect for the day’s lesson. The students then moved off to their workstations to resume working on their artwork. It was apparent that the teacher had good organizational procedure, as the students were mostly on tasks throughout the lesson. They knew where the art materials were and the cleared the tables swiftly without much instruction at the end. There was good TSR, as students approached the art teacher readily whenever they were in doubt.
From our conversation with Victoria, we gathered that although she was given the autonomy to plan her own lessons the way she likes them, there was little opportunity for her to dialogue with the art teachers in the middle and high schools. Consequently, there was a lack of alignment of standards and objectives across the elementary, middle and high schools. This visit confirms the importance for the administration to set aside time for professional conversations between teachers. It should not be assumed that sound pedagogical approaches would develop organically when teachers are left on their own without much facilitation for professional growth.
Date: 25 March 2015
Venue: New Orleans Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Center & New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA)
Time: 8.30-4.00pm
The morning session at the museum was designed mainly for museum educators and leaders. As a teacher in school, I felt connected with their desire and attempts to make museum education more meaningful for the students. One experienced museum educator shared her multi-visit programme during the focused group discussion. She met up with teachers for pre-program discussion to find out the skills to be taught through the collaboration. The idea of co-creating the visit with the museum educator was new and very helpful to me. I also picked up another new idea from our own Singaporean teachers, when Ms Norlita from Orchard Park Secondary School shared her school’s experience of SAM training her students to become museum docents to primary school students. After listening to these great ideas, I felt challenged to explore collaboration with our museum educators so as to maximize the students’ learning experience at the museum.
We visited NOCCA in the afternoon. This school is very similar to SOTA, and has a few good practices. Firstly, it allows students who have lost interest in their art form to exit the school (they have to if they do not wish to continue). Yet, it is willing to accept these students again if there is a change of mind and the child wishes to rejoin the school and the art form. This freedom of choice is a sign of respect and faith in the child to make the right decisions. Secondly, the school was clear about its niche areas, and remained undistracted by good-to-have programmes. For example, the school’s academic programme does not attempt to collaborate with the arts. Although this decision stands to be challenged, I felt the school should be commented for staying focused to its core businesses, which were to run an academic curriculum in the morning, and the arts curriculum with artist-educators in the afternoons.
Date: 26 March 2015 (Day 1 of NAEA Conference)
Venue: Hilton Hotel
Time: 9am – 4.50pm
It’s the start of the NAEA conference today and I was really excited with the opportunity to listen to the sharing of many experts in arts education. I attended 5 sessions today.
1) First General Session by Tim Gunn (9am)
This was the 1st big group presentation at the conference, where advisor of Project Runway Tim Gunn gave a 30-min speech about his experience as a teacher and then the principal of Parson. His sharing about his encounters at project runway left the strongest impression for me. He shared that at the start of the show, he helped one designer with something that the designer had problem doing. The producer pulled him aside and told him that if he did that to one, he had to do it for everyone and every show. I realized very often that my students made similar responses when they see me help someone technically. ‘Teacher you helped him but you didn’t help me!” So I made it a point to help every child in class if I start with one, and with graduating classes, I worked hard on giving quality feedback.
2) 3D printing for Under $500 by Courtney Bryant (11am)
The speaker shared with the audience her students’ design process – 1) Design brief (design a fund raising table item); 2) Research; 3) Sketch n design on paper (the speaker emphasized that many have skipped this useful process but she believed it is a very useful skill that students should develop); 4) Familiarization with the software; 5) Design the packaging, 6) Promotion plans. The 3D software used is TinkerCAD software. Printer softwares are Cura & repetier, each for a different machine. File type: STL. Students should think in terms of XYZ axis. Finally ethics have to discussed and taught. For example, we can print anything but we will not print everything.
I attended this session because like makers’ space and STEAM, 3D printing is a new kid on the block and I wanted to explore the feasibility of introducing it to school. My takeaway from this session was that 3D printing is DIFFICULT to start up and I need a lot of technical support. I could explore and make it happen on my own, but I probably have to do it full time and forget the other media I have been working with. But I will definitely support others to embrace this media if they have the right support.
3) No Standardization Curriculum and Core Values in Next Generation Standards by Olivia Gude (12pm)
I observed that the speaker’s slides were clean yet visually stimulating. Her presentation approach was well framed around big ideas, and candid. I have heard and read so much about her, attending her session and looking at her approach, I understand instantly why she is so well liked and respected.
Below are some highlights from the session:
- New US standards for Visual Arts are framed by the 4 big ideas - Create, Present (or produce or perform), Respond, Connect. Other interesting
- UBD? Speaker felt that UBD can’t work for visual art sometime because we want to be surprised at the end, rather than to know what’s at the end even before we know how to start.
- Discursive space (space developed by teachers), potential space
- Visual culture was briefly discussed and I need to find out more about what this term means
- Connect. Speaker reminded the audience that educators should desire for students to leave the art classes with big ideas, not just what they make.
- Form n conceptual vocabularies. Again need to look into these.
- contemporary art media include involving the audience, artist intervention in public space, pop culture art responses, installations.
Challenge
The speaker gave this example about standards: if high school students are required to give critical feedback during critique, middle school students should be able to analysis, interpret and reflect art works, primary school students should talk n share art work, and Kindergartens should learn to describe an art work. Will Singapore system benefit from having such clear cascading of grade level standards? Currently our secondary art standards are indirectly determined by examinations. Although I can’t change what our nation can do to improve, I felt challenged to relook my school’s art curriculum in school to articulate the standards for each level, from year 1- 6.
4) Designing Curriculum for Engaging Students in Art-based Discussion n Questioning by Karen Rosner
Most of what was shared were similar to my findings for my Masters’ research, but I did have some takeaways.
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If we tell students what the art works are about without having them discover for themselves through conversations, it’s like buying ice cream for them and eating the ice cream for them n telling them how nice it was.
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We build life skills when we teach students how to have a conversation. E.g. Sam I really like what u say, but i want to add something.
5) Utilizing Assessment: Praise, Feedback and other comments Influencing Student Learning by Constance Lutz
I almost could not make it to this session and I am so glad I did because it turned out the best sharing of the day! The speaker spoke with authority that praise, feedback and other comments are not assessments but the use of assessment information/data. She suggested tying language to purpose. To be effective, comments are 1) based on assessment results; 2) on the students’ work or actions, not about the student; 3) timely; 4) specific; 5) one-on-one; 6) verbal or written
Range of effective comments to leverage student learning
4 Highly effective comments – 1) feedback (tie to learning goals); 2) guidance (on how to proceed); 3) advice (toward an action that is needed); 4) clarification (to clear up misunderstanding)
2 positive comments – 5) Talking about exemplars; 6) Validation
On the whole, I took away many useful tips that have much to do with my classroom teaching, and I intend to share this with the HODs during our weekly professional development session!
Date: 27 March 2015 (Day 2 of NAEA Conference)
Venue: Hilton Hotel Convention Centre
Time: 8am – 4.50pm
1) Utilizing Google Apps to increase collaboration among students and teachers
This was a best practice session using platforms that are Singapore teachers are familiar with.
1) using google doc to plan lesson units
2) google forms for surveys
3) Ipad lessons - screen shots followed by imovie
4) Youtube
5) Blogging platform - allow showcase of work n processes.
6) Google site to showcase students’ work
7) Padlet n Kahoot
2) Using Handheld/ Mobile Devices in Art Classroom
This session was the highlight of the whole day for me. Firstly, I met Dr Karen Heid in person! She wrote 2 articles about the care culture in 2007 and 2008 which I found so helpful when I wrote my research paper. Her current pre-occupation is research into digital device that most youths are familiar with. She received grants for collaborative works with the museum. Most museums materials were in ISO format and she wanted to make learning available to ipad users. The research involved the museum, teachers and computer engineers to create a gallery app. The end result was Handheld Art.Org, where anyone from all over the world could access enduring ideals that cut across all discipline area, are situated in human experience, and draw attention of human beings through out. I love the free resources as I have been searching over the Internet for enduring ideas. Key concepts were made available on this platform and anyone can download the lesson units for their own classes.
3) Curriculum Slum
A total of 11 presenters spoke during this session. From the sharing of the teachers, I took away 3 learning:
a) Catchy titles for projects go a long way. ‘Getting Good at being Bad’, ‘Bad Advertisement Project’, ‘Beyond the Wall’, “Unrules: Breaking Rules in Art to Make Better Art.
b) When working with an art medium, teachers created prompts to direct students thoughts. E.g. A lesson on performing art titled ‘From Abramovic to Classroom’, the teacher gave the following prompts - using the body to tell a story- performing what is unjust, embodying the urgent, playing with discomfort, challenging cultural history n memory, questioning norms, testing endurance n duration, placing limitations on the body, challenging space, rearranging the room, drawing a map of where your audience will sit, perform an impossible task, noticing what is absent.
c) Design projects that are relevant to the real world. E.g. A project designed to enable students to explore how they represent big data thru art - A tree made out of toilet rolls to address the issue of the rapid cutting down of trees.
4) Engaging Teenagers through Art
- We met this presenter at the museum and decided to support her sharing. When we met at the museum, she shared with passion about how she first thought of this new art history project so started with her high school students to engage them in art history. However, her actual sharing was less about that and more about the lesson unit itself, which was sound but not fresh.
Date: 28 March 2015 (Day 3 of NAEA Conference)
Venue: Hilton Hotel Convention Centre
Time: 8am – 4.50pm
1) Mining for Ideas: Powerful Use of Prompts
- 4 teachers shared about their beliefs in using prompts and the implementation in the classroom. Examples of prompts are nouns (an object), artists quotes, complete the sentence eg Inside My Head is...,
- Although I am not new to using prompts, I find thinking up creative prompts a challenge. Thus, the examples shared during this session were useful. We must be mindful that prompts like themes remind as just words unless they are used to develop thinking, explorations, creativity n divergent thinking.
- Useful quotes - Art with purpose is made from the heart; set students up for success.
- 4th presenter presented his award worthy prompt project titled ‘31 nights’, with students working on 31 fun prompts over 31 consecutive days. Students must spend 10 - 60 mins on each night and it has to be the same duration. E.g of prompts included Portal, Progression, 31 Secrets, the darker side of life, the arts of privacy.
2) Best Practices in Online Art Education – The Future is Now
- This was a rather disappointing session as the presenter only shared 1 main online platform which was Blackboard Collaborate. I am sure it was a useful tool for her but I felt her presentation lacked strong pedagogical grounding.
Serene and I also attended our final 2 presentations at 5.30pm to support my ex-classmates, Jacque and Jamie, from MICA. On the whole, I felt totally recharged and reconnected with the international art fraternity. Meeting Prof Karen Heid was definitely the highlight of my trip. Attending a diverse range of sessions have also exposed me to different presentation styles and affirmed my belief of what makes good art education. I am thankful to STAR for giving us the opportunity to make this trip. It was truly an honour to travel with this team of very professional and passionate art educators!