Today we conducted the workshop and surprisingly it went really really well. The students engaged and participated well, which made teaching the class a lot easier. Me and Maisie split the two activities between us and made the class swap groups so that everyone gets a chance to experience the both activities.
Maisie conducted the workshop 'Throwing Paint' which is when we filled up water balloons with poster paint which is non toxic and our aim was for the students to throw the balloons onto sheets of paper to create interesting shapes and patterns. I conducted the workshop 'Drawing with the body' which is using crayons and paint to draw and create marks using different parts of the body such as feet, elbows etc.
We arrived at 8:45 am to give ourselves are 45 mins preparation time as the students come in at around 9:30am. The school thankfully already had all of our materials set out for us so all we had to do was fill the water balloons and tape the paper into place. I helped Maisie fill up some water balloons before going to set up my activity. I then went to set up and used 4 coloured trays to fill up the yellow, red/orange, blue and green paint. I purposely placed the paint in a tray that's the opposite colour to help make things more exciting and to get the children to think a bit more. I placed around two sheets of huge paper down and set the trays in place whilst the students were doing their morning activity as it had passed 9:30 and the students started class whilst we were still setting up.
I finished setting up before Maisie as she was still outside setting up. Before splitting the class into two groups of four, I introduced myself and again and explained what we'd be doing this morning. I was nervous at first to present myself as I had to do it alone because Maisie wasn't quite ready yet, but the teachers helped out massively as they translated what I was saying into sign language, making it easier for the kids to understand.
The Workshop
After introducing myself, the teachers split the class into two for us to make things easier and I then took the students to the are where we would be creating the artwork. Due to time, as the students can only work for half an hour tops, I didn't demonstrate fully but simply got straight into it. I showed the kids what to do by doing it the same time as them. I dipped my feet into paint and made marks onto the large sheet. The students kind of followed my lead and caught on really quickly. I would personally say that the workshop was a success as one of the students whose really sensory and doesn't participate well, joined in and made himself feel really included and the teacher said she was really happy that he took part and engaged really well. The students produced some really nice work, I am still yet to receive photographs as for confidentiality purposes, the teachers had to take pictures as faces and names are not allowed to be shown/seen. The workshop got incredibly messy and I felt so bad but I did my best to clear up once the session was over. I cleared up when the teachers went to shower the kids. As for swapping over the two groups, both groups participated well and I feel the second group I taught, enjoyed it a lot more as they're sensory students. All in all, I'd say the workshop was a success and I couldn't be happier with the result.
Feedback
Most of the feedback I received was positive which I was really happy about. The art director gave us good feedback and also feedback that would benefit us in the future:
- One by one - she advised us that as the workshops can get really messy, which is great, she gave us the advice that if we wanted to keep things a bit more clean, we should get a student to take part one by one to keep things more controlled. I thought about doing this, but after observing the art class last time, the children get restless really easy and behavioural issues start to show and I wanted to avoid that, but I will still take this into consideration if there is a next time.
- Health and Safety - To take health and safety into consideration more, especially for my workshop as the paint was really slippery and the students did slip a lot but thankfully no injuries occurred. I will definitely look into health and safety a lot more as I only looked into what was safe for them and what wasn't in terms of materials and not surrounding.
- Enthusiastic - She said I interacted with the children well and enforced the enthusiastic language with them well so like emphasising the tone of voice and really engaging well with them. This is something I took into consideration massively as after observing the classes earlier on in the year, I saw that they respond well when spoken to enthusiastically so I'm happy I was able to give off that good energy.
Here are the few pictures of some of the work produced as I'm still waiting for the rest of the pictures to be sent.
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