Taking Action
Taking action refers to the idea based from the IB and also intertwines a service learning twist. Action is when students are so inspired or motivated that they do ‘something’ due to their learning in and out of the classroom. People often have the idea that action needs to be a BIG PROJECT when in fact it can be as simple as a child brining in a book from home or showing a drawing they made on the weekend.
As adults if we don’t take action in our own lives then nothing changes.
Excellent information and extensive resources can be found here.
Examples of action in the art room
Students feedback to me that they;
Drew on their own at home or made some kind of artwork
Made some art or craft with their parents or friends
Visited an art gallery or exhibition
Went to see some street art
Joined at art class or after school art activity
Watching a video about something creative
Read a book about something that interested them
Went on a holiday or away for a weekend and asked their parents to take them to see some art
An incredible example of a student creating a gigantic pattern on a beach near Rome, Italy on his own and then sharing it with our class.
Creative School Projects
It amazes me that some teachers/ educators love being involved in authentic and meaningful projects at school, some love their yearly art shows and competitions, whilst other teachers think ‘competition within the art world’ is a no no. Whatever you perspective here are some projects that I have been involved in and links with other great project based ideas. Despite the incredible amount of work most of these become, I try to remind myself that THESE are the things that children remember for the rest of their lives!
Tiny Moments Photographic Exhibition
I have helped to organise several photo competitions and exhibitions over the years with the mosts successful being an exhibition rather than a competition called ‘Tiny Moments’. It was inspired after I saw the traveling Photographic Exhibition M.I.L.K (moments of intimacy, laughter and kinship) many years ago in Sydney. I thought it would be a great way to bring international communities together by inviting children, parents and teachers to submit photographs they had taken.
The M.I.L.K exhibition had been particularly powerful due to the personal photographs submitted but also because of the large size they were printed on.With this in mind our school had each photograph printed to an A3 paper size then laminated.We displayed them outside in one of or playgrounds so that the ‘art’ was taken out into the community.
We used a number coding system in order to allow artists to include a title and some information about where they took their photograph and why it was important to them. This information was put into a booklet, for example
Category:Landscape Category
Title: Harbin Versus Rome
Artist: Bell Frolchenko
Location: Harbin, Northern China 2015
Why did you choose this photo? I took this photo while wandering around the amazing Ice Festival in Harbin China. I couldn’t believe how real and detailed the ice sculpture was and I had not idea I would soon be moving to Rome, Italy.
With a giant wall of images welcoming families it certainly made an impact and did last through some pretty wild rain storms.
