My Work Placement
As when I finish my Ba art and design course I would like to be a art teacher, I knew straight away that the best thing for me to do would be to get a placement within a school. I thought about doing placement within a interior design company but decided that a school would be more useful to me in the future.
As my Dad used to be a long period supply teacher, he has a lot of contacts to all different schools. He recommended that I tried Hall green School as it has been one of his favourites to work at. So I phoned up and asked to speak to Kate Irving (head of art), I explain who I am and asked her if she would be willing to let me do a work placement with her and she loved the idea. A lot of the pupils at this school tend to try to go into medicine as it is one of the best schools in the area. Kate liked the idea of someone coming in from BCU so she could get someone else's opinion on the school.
Kate spoke to the deputy head at Hall green and he agreed for me to be able to do my Placement there. I also asked about me not having a CRB and the school still agreed for me to go there, but for no longer than 4 days, and as long as I stayed with a member of staff the whole time.
On the 10th March 2014, I did a 4 day work placement at Hall Green School in Birmingham. I Worked alongside 3 art teachers, Kate Irving, Jenny Small, And Nicky Kennedy.
I spent the four days in the Art department, helping to set lessons up, helping students in their lessons, and doing small workshops.
The normal day for me was from 8.00am-4.00pm
Day 1
The first lesson I was in on Monday was a Year 10 class. They where all preparing for their mock exam, which at the time was 2 weeks away. Their project was called 'Nature' and a lot of the students were going towards a underwater theme. During this lesson most students were using acrylics and watercolours, experimenting on how to make a good water effect.
I advised them to try marbling as this is something I did in school myself, they made a note in the sketchbook and they are now going to try this next lesson.
Other students were further ahead than others and were now making fish out of wire, again I was able to help as I have done quite a bit of work with wire myself.
Lesson 2
Second lesson was a year 9 class, and they were all monoprinting.
This class were given homework in the previous lesson, they all had to draw a poster that linked to WW2 using only one object and limited text. The examples they were given were of propaganda posters.
A lot of the students drew a key as this is what was on one of the examples, and the text was 'The Key to Success'. after choosing their design they then transferred their design onto polypropylene using tracing paper, to then use to monoprint later on.
Form
As most of the time I was there I worked with Kate Irving, I also joined her when it was from time, just after second lesson, before break. Today we had an assembly about the correct use of mobile phones and social networking sites.
Lesson 3
This was my first interactive lesson, with a Year 11 class. I went around each pupil and asked them 3 questions:-
What is your project about?
How they got on with their development work
What are you aiming to do for your final piece in your exam?
The last question as the most important, as they only had 3 lessons left until their exam. So I helped them when it came to choosing the scale they were going to do their final piece, and what material they are going to use.
There was one pupil I spent a lot of time with as he felt as though she dint know what she was doing at all. Her project was called 'Sandwich'. She showed me apiece of work a student had done in the previous year that she liked, as she was interested in doing something similar to this. it was a collage of different foods including party rings, doughnuts ect, painted with acrylic paints.
I advised her to do a couple of different drawing ready for her next lesson, so she could then put them together as a collage, and she was really happy with the idea.
Another pupil I worked with found it really difficult to describe his work to me, so I asked him to go through his sketchbook with me. He told me that he had written his own story, and his final piece is a drawing of the main character in it, who starts of as a normal man, and then later changes into a clown. so his drawing was of is face, and it was split down the middle so you could see both of his personalities.
The was another pupil who was doing fashion illustration! so I felt as though I could really help her with this as I have done a lot of it within my past projects. so I was able to giver her a couple of artists names that I have used, like for example Renie.
Lesson 4
Lesson 5 I helped a low ability year 10 class. They had the same project as the previous year 10s, so a lot of the pupils were making fish out of metal wiring. every pupil was doing the same typical shape fish so I tired to get a few to do different ones, and I helped one girl start making an angel fish.
As this was a low ability class, they didn't get a lot of work done.
Lesson 5
Lesson 5 was a year 7 class. Each pupil had already drawn out their favourite insect in their sketchbook, and they are now going to build them out of clay.
Each pupil started of by making a leaf, which their insect would be put onto.
As I have worked with clay in the past, again I was able to help a pupil. They made the insects wings and legs out of wire, as it would have been difficult for them to make them out of clay.
Day 2
Lesson 1
Lesson 1 I had a free, as there wasn't any classes going in the art department, so I helped Kate set up for lesson 2.
Lesson 2
'The converse project'
This year group were given a project to make a large converse trainer out of cardboard. They had done their designs the previous lesson, and now they were going to make them!
All of the shapes that they needed had already been cut out, so all they had to do with put them together with masking tape and then paper maché over them.
in this class I worked alongside a disable girl, who has cerebral palsy, which is a condition that effects peoples movements. So I sat with her and supported her with the jobs that she struggled with.
Lesson 3
Lesson three I sat in with a year 9 group who were doing the same project as the previous year 9s, but this was a lower ability group.
As the point of this project was to make a poster and then later monoprint it, I ran a workshop at the back of the class, where each pupil came up to me one by one, and I taught them how to monoprint, by Starting off with an example, and them letting them do a small one themselves.
All pupils behaved really well, and picked it up really quickly.
Lesson 4
Year 11!
The projects they were doing include:
-Headdress
-Sandwich
-Landscapes
There was one pupil in this group I worked with a lot the week I was at Hall Green.
The project she had chosen was 'Sandwiches', but instead of going with the typical food option, she decided to do it on people. So its based on crowds of people, and catching people in everyday life. The main artist she was looking at is Patrick cornfield. Mainly like the picture below.
So she wanted to a crowd of people, but it just be like their silhouettes. So at the start of the week I told her to go out and take pictures of people in everyday life, such as on a bus and down a busy shopping high street.
This year 11 student came back almost every lunch break and sometimes after school. in this time I was teaching her the basic photoshop skills.
Lesson 5
Free
Day 3
Lesson 1 -Year 11. As they only have another 3 lessons until their exam, I left each pupil to do what they had to do, but just told them that I am their for any support they need. So throughout this lesson, I just did the few odd jobs, such as helping a pupil with artist research, and techniques.
Lesson 2 Year 7 (naughtiest group yet!!!)
I was asked my jenny small if I would sit in with her year 7 class, and she told me that I was going to help 2 pupils that sat on a specific table. Anyway, as the pupils came into the classroom, the 2 pupils that I was going to work with came and sat on the table where I was going to be supporting. These 2 pupils have behavioural problems.
The one girl I worked with for the majority of the lesson was very hard work. The class had to make tiles out of clay, just like the other year 7 class I worked with, as they were also going to make insects to put onto these tiles afterwards.
Jenny (Miss Small) gave the class a example of what they were going to be doing, and that alone took longer than it should of due to pupils talking and messing about. When the example had been done, all pupils returned back to their seats and I helped the two that I was told to support to get started.
As this school is highly populated with disabled children, there was also another member of support staff in this class.
It took a while for the pupil I was helping to get her work done, as she was more interested in shouting at people on the other side of the classroom, and cutting clay up into tiny pieces. I managed to get her to sit down and eventually get her to complete her work.
Lesson 3Period three I sat in another year 7 class, and what a difference it was to the previous one!
this lass was doing the same project, but they were one step ahead. They had already made the tiles and were now only making their insects.
I sat with a group of 6 girls and helped them all make the basic shapes for their insects as they hadn worked with clay before.
Lesson 4
Period four was a year 10 class preparing for their mock exam. There wasn't really much for me to do within this hour as most students seemed to know what they were doing, as they only had a couple of lessons left.
Lesson 5
Year 8 - I spent this hour with a group of girls in year 8, and I gave them support to make sure that they were all up to date with making the basic shape of their cardboard converse. At the end of this lesson, every member of the class was at the same stage, ready to start painting next lesson.
Day 4
My final day at Hall Green School!!
Lesson 1
First period today was year 11s. I sat with the same girl as before as she wanted more help with her work on photoshop. She had a number of pictures, one of a empty bus, and others of random people walking down busy high streets. She wanted to make a picture by taking all of the people from her photos and making it look as though they were on the bus. I shown her how to make it look like they are stood behind bars and sitting down ect. She picked it up really quickly.
Lesson 2
For this hour I sat in with a year 8 class, again making converse. In the first couple of minutes all the pupil came in and sat down, but one boy came in in tears and walked back out of the classroom again. As I had to stay with a member of staff the whole time I was there I couldn't go and see what was wrong as I had to stay in the classroom. So Adam, the art technician followed him to what was wrong and he managed to persuade him to come back into the classroom. I wen and sat with him to see if everything was ok and he told me that he was being bullied in his previous lesson. I found this quite difficult to handle as if was really upset, I he was trying to hide it from the rest of the class by quickly wiping his eyes. I stayed with him for the majority of the lesson to help him with his work, and I feel as though it felt because he has someone to talk to.
Lesson 3
Year 9 - Monoprinting
In this class I worked with a disabled boy in a wheelchair who was a very big ManU fan! He constantly talks about football!
I helped him set up his work and was there for any help that he needed
Lesson 4 and 5 this day were frees as there was meeting going on in the department, so I spent this time just doing little odd jobs with the technician such as tidying up and preparing things for other classes.
Conclusion.
A lot of people have surprised to know that I really enjoyed my time at hall green school and do still want to be a teacher!
In fact, I think this experience has made me want to be a teacher even more. In such a short space of time I feel as though I learnt a lot. This is including how to manage a class, how pupils like to be spoken to for them to enjoy their class and finally I conquered one of my biggest fears of speaking in front of a number of people I had never met before. I really enjoyed learning about all of the different projects that school do for their pupils now, and I especially enjoyed talking to the pupils who had a passion for the subject and wanted to pursue with it in the future.
The converse project was the one that impressed me the most. I spoke to Kate about this and this was a project that she made up herself as she tried to find one that would interest everyone. For this project, pupils could chose their own design to put onto the trainer, and of course as converse are popular at the moment they all enjoyed doing it.
I was really impressed with the amount of techniques the art department taught to their pupils. on one occasion, a pupil in year 10 was doing screen printing, and this is something I didn't do until I was in university.
I enjoyed working alongside Kate Irving who has been a teacher for over 10 years, and has worked her way up to head of art, as I was able to watch over a teacher with experience and she really pushed me on my placement to make sure I interacted with pupils as at the start I was finding it difficult. Jenny small is a newly qualified teacher, and has only been at this school for a year, so It was nice to talk to someone who was in my position not too long ago.
Before this placement, part of me was unsure on whether I would like to be a teach in the future, and the main reason being that to teach art, I would have to work in a secondary school. Part of me was quite scared that I wouldn't be taken seriously, and pupils wouldn't behave. After my placement though, I really feel as though I will be able to do it.
