IGCSE + Online

This semester turned out to be a bit of a disappointment- I returned in January to find out I had a class of only two students. Then halfway through the preparations for our exam, we went online; only later to find out that the exams are cancelled altogether. To top it all off, this was my LAST chance to teach this class, which I love, due to our school no longer running the program.

Nonetheless, I was privileged to be a part of these students’ creative journeys and I am excited to see where it takes them in the future!

Making Art With Alternative Materials

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  Student work created with coffee, cocoa, mulberry leaf powder and nail polish!

As artists, we are constantly creating and coming up with new ideas. Facing limitations in terms of materials, especially during at-home learning, proves to be no barrier in continuing to make art! I expanded my own horizons in making my first YouTube tutorial to introduce my students to working with alternative materials, click here to check it out.

Bookbinding is typically one of my year end activities, in an attempt to recycle old drawings and paper from the semester. I saw artists all over the internet embarking on quarantine projects and thought it would be neat for us as well to create a collection of work from this time (not knowing that our at-home learning would last the entire fourth quarter!) After binding our own COVID Diaries, I gave the students two assignments per week, consisting of one sketchbook assignment (which they chose from a list) and one art challenge, which we started during our weekly class calls. Here are some of my favourite submissions:

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  Data Drawing

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  Coronavirus Inspired

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  View Out the Window

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  COVID Cartoon

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  Drawing to Music

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  Draw Your Daily Schedule

Dear Miss Twa

I have returned to this assignment after a few years. I always enjoy learning new things about my students. They are such a diverse group of TCKs; representing a mosaic of cultural backgrounds, languages and experiences. I had them write artist statements in the form of a letter to explain the symbolism within the finished pieces.

This one, for me, seems to best illustrate the Third Culture Kid experience; in both the division and blending together of two identities.

From Our Sketchbooks, Part One

Showing off some pages from our sketchbooks this quarter!

 

Beginnings

We are already into the fourth week of school and the busyness does not slow down! Hard to believe that on this day five years ago, I moved to Istanbul. What a wild adventure it has been!

I wanted to share some of the middle school projects from our first weeks. It has been two whole years since I taught middle school, so it will take some getting used to again. I am glad I keep a blog because I have a record to look back on of all the wonderful projects from years past.

The fifth and sixth graders About Me sculptures

We started off the year with making portfolios- I will have to remember to share some photos!

The new middle schoolers, the fifth and sixth graders made paper line sculptures. These are hanging up in the hallway across from the art room. Each line represents something about the artist; for example, an orange tab if you have been on a train, or a green spiral if you like ayran (a Turkish yogurt drink).

This project may look familiar, it is typically one that I do with kindergarten (see here and here) but I have learned that it works for many ages. Thank you to Cassie Stephens once again for the inspiration!

Fifth through eighth graders also made paper foldables for the elements of art; this was information I knew I wanted them to get down from the beginning!

Here are a few of the finished foldables. Each of the seven elements of art were to be written in an illustrative way; to add meaning to the element. Inside are definitions for each element and further drawn examples.

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Our Heroes

 

Here is another across elementary project that we just finished up on the theme of heroes… and I was lucky to secure enough bulletin board space to display them all! In class, we discussed what makes someone a hero and thought of examples of heroes we knew: people in our everyday lives, historical figures, athletes… Each student chose a personal hero and did some thinking on how to portray them. We learned how to draw portraits, having previously learned about drawing the figure in a pose.

This unit was my first experiment in TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behaviour) and allowing more student-driven choice, which I have not been brave enough for with younger ones. It went pretty well, I had stations set up around the room with different materials. We were already familiar with these materials from earlier this year, so they required only a few reminders before they jumping into choice.

One focus of the unit was developing carefulness, one of the intellectual virtues. Students had the opportunity to practice with different materials first, before making decisions for the final piece. The final results were varied- some students chose to stick with coloured pencils and markers, others branched out into painting, pastel and collage. It was rewarding to sit back and watch the artistic process, as they figured out how to solve problems and combine different media together to create a finished piece.

The sweetest moments were reading the artist statements students wrote to accompany their finished artworks.

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Decay

This was a unit I did with my IGCSE class in the final weeks of the first semester. I wanted them to have the experience of working with a midterm exam topic to practice working within a limited time, similar to the final exam.

The topic was decay. We began by brainstorming the word, looking at the definition and collecting ideas for subjects pertaining to the topic. I had them do observational drawings of objects, both from my collection and from items they brought in.

After the students had several drawings, we narrowed in to the topic a bit more with a specified task: either to design a fashion garment inspired by decay, or to develop a final piece to be shown in an exhibition on decay. Once the students chose a direction, they began to develop their ideas from their original starting point drawings.

I did a workshop showing them different techniques for distressing paper and fabric to make it look old, worn and decayed. They explored these techniques in their sketchbooks and incorporated some of them into their final ideas.

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The final piece was to be created during three one and a half hour exam slots. My students went into the exam knowing exactly which of their ideas they were going to recreate, what materials they needed and had thought out the steps for completion. There was an interruption of snow amidst the creating, so the midterm was not actually finished before the semester ended. Despite this small hiccup, I think all of them were familiarized with the exam process and the steps needed for taking a topic from the brainstorming stages to completion.

Leaf Prints

This was a two part project. The first day, I had the students create observational drawings of leaves (I am fortunate to have many tree options on my way home from school!) One by one, they each had a turn to make 3 leaf prints using white printing ink on black paper. The next class, we talked about warm and cool colours. I had them colour the details in the leaf prints, 1 leaf using warm colours and 1 using cool colours. For the 3rd leaf, it was up to them to choose which colours to use.

 

Exploring Natural Forms: Repetition+Variation

Part A of a two part project. Students chose a natural object from my own collection to explore and worked in their sketchbooks at first to test out different mixed media combinations. They chose limitations for their piece in regards to the layout of their compositions and media, and created a grid of twelve compositions. These compositions were to show repetition and variation in exploring an object and throughout the piece as a whole.

I am so very proud of what they have accomplished and how far they have come!

And of course, I had to try it out for myself!

 

Parrot Drawings

I began this year teaching two elementary classes, which is a lot less than I taught last year. I have enjoyed the opportunity to once again to teach these students and I have lots of new ideas of exciting projects to try with them. I do not know how long I will have these classes, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.
We began the year with abstract guided drawing using the basic elements of line, shape and colour. It was a good exercise for the students in listening to instructions and seeing how the same instructions can be interpreted in different ways to achieve unique results. This lesson was followed up with another guided drawing lesson where we combined the elements to create a recognizable creature- a parrot. We used the same elements to create our own birds and added other overlapping details- branches, leaves, flowers and other creatures- to fill the page.
Adding colour to the drawings was an exercise in patience for many students. I had them cover all the white on the page using coloured pencils and then add final details- outlines and texture using markers. I am quite pleased with how they all turned out- each unique in their own way!

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Mobile Art Teacher

Today was day one of teaching in my makeshift classroom. I was able to haul down most of my supplies to a designated corner of the multi purpose room, however I soon realized there are so many things I take for granted when I teach! For today’s lessons, I had to make do without my whiteboard, rulers, a nearby sink… we made it work. While the space was dim and damp, I enjoyed being right next to the music room and partaking of a mini concert during my break. Midday, I decided it was easier to travel up to my kinder and first grade rooms for their lesson. Fortunately these two rooms are next together and I only needed the same simple supplies for both groups. This was the smoothest part of my day- it makes so much sense to have them sit and work at their own desks that are the right size for them!

Here are a few of our creations from today. We started with written letters of the alphabet and transformed them into colourful, imaginative playgrounds.

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