Gallery workshop at Manchester Art Gallery

On Thursday 19th March, we had a workshop with Manchester Art Gallery and were spoken to by one of the managers in the learning team. Manchester Art Gallery has a learning team with the manager sitting with the other senior managers. As a result the learning, engaging and giving skills is considered very important. There is a diverse learning team which covers schools, families, community project, volunteer and health and wellbeing. At the present time, there are no adults learning team. It is funded by the arts council. The workshops they of help build skills and confidence and see creativity as important and how they can reverse the stigma. For example AQA recently tweeted "Schools, colleges and universities are fundamental to the success of creative industries.", "Applicants for creative subjects are increasing at a much higher rate than other subjects.", "Six principles for creative decision making - Structure, pattern, meaning, performance, human interaction, and practice. We want these six concepts to give coherence to animate the whole curriculum.". From these quotes we are able to tell that Art is starting to have the stigma changed.

 The lady who we were given the talk by was the School Manager. Her job is to engage with the adults in the schools to convince them to come to art galleries. The sessions run with the school curriculum and you can book the sessions. Schools can apply to be put in Artsmark which is the "Arts Council England’s flagship programme to enable schools and other organisations to evaluate, strengthen and celebrate their arts and cultural provision", schools apply for this and it helps fund the arts. Manchester Art Gallery will help with this and by doing this, it is helping to connect learning the school with the Art world.

 We then went through a number of activities with her. The first activity was to choose and answer and move to the side of the room with the chosen choice. The reason for doing this activity was to bring energy, engaging and expressing an opinion without having to say something. After reflecting on this game, I thought it may be something that we could use when teaching the workshop in order to quickly get the children focused.
 The second activity was to follow on a line on the painting and looking at the light and dark. We were then asked to look at the painting and see what you see beyond it. The reason we did this activity next was to change the pace, bring it down and as a result, it allows them to have their moment and create their own thoughts. It also gets them to actually look and take in the painting. It is another good activity, as if they do not think they are of the creative mindset, then this helps them get into the "creative mindset".
 Carrying on from the last activity, we were asked to draw what we saw beyond the painting and then one of was to move around the room and explain our painting. What I found from this activity is that it engaged you with other people in the room, but you also learnt how to explain your thoughts of the work and draw your ideas.

 We spoke about what makes a good workshop as apposed as a bad workshop. She mentioned to not over push your group, rather have a few good activities rather than lots. It allows them to engage in the work. Going with this, is to have good organisation. It allows you to run things smoothly and not panic. In terms of group activities, it is important to have individual and group work. It is also good to start with a group activity as it allows everyone to bounce ideas, take away the fear from people and everyone is involved. It is also important to have a quick pace as it takes away pressure and gets the rubbish out.

Photos from the event

Week Two - Placement at DACA

Day One,

 What I notice from the very first lesson was the level of discipline. This was because of the year of the student. I had Art with Year 7 for the first two periods. The tutor had a stern tone to her voice and kept this going throughout the lesson. When she used this voice the pupils responded to what she was and reacted accordingly. For example, she used phrases of "I'm getting agitated by..." - when she did this the pupils would stop doing what they were doing. In the case of them not responding to her, she would say you have a detention. When this was mentioned, you were able to tell the pupil was annoyed by this and their behaviour and stopped accordingly so.
 When I first was there, I thought that it was too strict, for example, a pupil was given detention for being in the toilet at the wrong time. However, when reflecting on this, I understand why they are like this. In order to get the pupils to behave accordingly for their whole academic career at DACA, they need to behave in a certain way and by being this strict in their first couple of years, it will help the school mould the child into the behaviour they want to see. In terms of the workshop that we are going to do, I realise that I have to be strict with the younger pupils. By doing this, we will be able to get through the activities that we will plan.
 When considering her body language, she would stand up straight, making herself seem bigger and taller than the pupils. I feel the reason for this was to enforce the idea that she is in charge of the students and what she says, goes. It is important to note that she was not being aggressive in her body language but more affirmative in this.

 Her tone of voice however, did change when it came to the sixth form which I had in the last two periods. The tutor became more relaxed in her tone. The pupils however still behaved well. She did not hand out any detentions nor start any of her sentences with "I'm getting agitated", even when a pupil went to the toilet without permission, for example. With this clear level of difference of tone there is clearly an apparent reason to why the tutors do this. I feel this is because, if you were to be very strict with the older pupils, they would feel patronised and wouldn't behave well. If you allow them to feel more adult, then they will behave accordingly so. When thinking about this for the workshop, I plan to speak the older pupils as I would to someone my own age.

 In terms of how the pupils responded to my presence, I found it differed from the two different years. When helping the year 7's, I would suggest something for their paintings and found that the shyer ones would listen to me and respond to my suggestions. However the more naughty kids, would ignore me and then do something different to my suggestions. This was down to my body language, how I worded the sentence and my tone of voice. As I had no authority in any of the these, the children did not feel like they had to react to my suggestions.
 When I was helping the sixth form, the pupils responded to me very differently. They listened to what I was saying and we were able to have a conversations and help them move on their project. This, I feel was down to their maturity level being higher and the realisation that you are able to help then and help develop their skill and understanding.

Day Two,

 For the first two periods I was helping with year 10 GCSE art. They were finishing off their work for the exam periods. I was helping a boy with his exam piece and went through his sketch book. It became apparent that the boy had natural talent but he was difficult as he didn't apply himself. This was apparent in how the tutor treated him. You could tell the tutor was a bit tired of having to make the boy do work and made a comments such as "Don't try and get out of it.." "Come on, its only a couple more days". The tutor was clearly having to push the boy with his work. There could have been a different way of doing this, I suggested to the tutor to teach the boy different drawing techniques to spark his interest and commitment. However, speaking to the tutor that they wished they could do this, however they have limited funds and limited time and with this they try to get to get the kids to get the grades and therefore have to follow a set plan. I plan to look at the restrictions that Art courses face in the academic curriculium.
 I noticed that the tutor had a very different tone of voice generally to the other two years that I saw yesterday. Whilst the tutor was not as relaxed as with the sixth form, it was not as strict as the younger years. They have been given some freedom, which would have made them feel as if are more mature, and so they wanted to react in a mature act. I also noticed how the tutor reacted differently to each child, it became apparent that he had studied the child and took note of how they were and responded accordingly so. Thinking about this, it becomes apparent that I have to react differently in my tone according to each student. Some will need more attention than others.

Final Piece for the Year 10

 For the next two periods I was with year 7 in textiles. They were making pinhole cameras for the Solar Eclipse taking place in the next couple of days.
 As it was the younger years, they were quite a noisy class. It became apparent that the tutor was a new teacher, as they would not immediately settle down and she would not have the authority nature that I had previously seen. However, she did impose techniques and made her tone accordingly so. For example, she would count down from five, raise her hand and have a stern voice. When she did, after a few moments the class would settle.
 As seen in previous classes, the tutor treated each child differently. She helped those who clearly needed to pushed creatively and let those who were capable to their own devices. I know when we have the workshop later, we will be teaching kids who "have the potential to be outstanding", however, I still believe that we will need to treat each child differently and respond to their needs.
 In terms of how the children responded to me, it was differently to the previous classes. We were able to have a general conversation. When it came to my suggestions, they responded to the ideas and allowed me to help them if they were struggling. I feel that this was partly caused by the conversation I had with them which is something I hadn't done in the previous day. Having this conversation is something I should do when I carry on in the future.

Pinhole cameras created by various students in the Year 8

Day Three

 This day worked differently to the other days as we were placed in different areas of the school. I was put in a year 9 maths class. It became very apparent that this was a difficult class as they were noisy and disruptive. After the register was taken, she took in the homework, those who has not done the homework had their names placed on the board. This technique clearly worked as the students who's name were on the board were not happy about this.
 Her voice was very stern throughout the whole class and as a result the class would settle down, she also used the counting down technique which would further settle them down. It became apparent that she had to be stern in order to get through the work and help them learn, something I will need to do if the class is stern.
 Although she was stern, she did however joke with class, but was blunt in her jokes. In order to help get through the lesson, she promised treats of chocolate to those who behaved well. When this was promised, the pupils became more settled and got on with the work. When speaking to her afterwards, she mentioned although the pupils think they are grown up, they still are childlike in their response to chocolate.
 Another technique she used, was if a particular pupil was disruptive, she would ask them a maths question. This seemed to settle that particular person. Another technique she used was write their names on the board. If they continued to be disruptive, she would place a tick by their name and if they reached a certain amount of ticks, they would receive a detention. It was interesting her use of this, if she was to give out detentions straight away, they would lose their power. Again, something to think about.
 Later in the class, she told a kid off with a comment that could have been interpreted badly. The children picked up on and this and this rattled them. Outside of the classroom, she apologised the pupil however the children kept pulling this up. In order to get their attention back to the work, she made her voice stern, said she had been dealt with it and told them to carry on with her work. It was interesting to see how she didn't admit her fault to the children, as that would be admitting to her wrongdoing and would stop the pupils from learning.

 This day was the most informative, it was interesting to see the techniques the tutor placed into a subject that they did not enjoy. She was stern throughout it but joked with them, as a result, giving the pupils a sense of maturity but still being able to take control of the class. She used chocolate as an incentive to make the pupils work and she used detentions as a method to stop them misbehaving. For the workshops these techniques are something that I would look to use.

Smarties for the test / treat

Week One

Possible things to look at during placement at Darwin Aldridge Community Academy -

• The tone of voice with the tutor and how this differs from year to year. Talk about why and how you would incorporate this into your style of teaching for the workshop.
• The body language of the tutor and how this differs from year to year. Talk about why and how you would incorporate this into your style of teaching for the workshop. 
• How the pupils reacted to you and did this change from year to year.