Whilst I was on placement in DACA I was surprised by a wide range of different aspects. Prior to placement I always thought I would much prefer working with the older students for the main reason that I would be able to relate to them better and I thought I would get more out of them; not only would I be able to input my own ideas and experience but I thought I could get ideas and inspiration from the students for my own area of practice. I was highly surprised when I started in the school how much I preferred being with the younger age group of the school, in particular year 7.
I personally found them more of a challenge; more receptive and they responded a lot better to me being around; and they showed me a lot more respect than the older age groups the whole time I was there. On completing the whole placement I have decided that I would like to teach year 7 POG group (the higher achieving students). The placement changed my perception of teaching the younger year groups and as result Ild like to pursue some kind of work experience in a Primary school setting so that I could really experience both job roles.
What has strongly influenced your ideas and their development?
As a textile student, I have strong opinions on the subject myself and try to encourage the creative practice as much as possible. I was surprised by the lack of textiles in this school and this influenced my ideas a lot more. As my passion for textiles is growing so my passion for spreading the enjoyment of the subject is growing - this area of creativity is very under represented in the school and often doesn't feature in the minds of the pupils. I would love to be able to make a small difference by encouraging their interest.
I tried to encourage all the students to think of reasons why they should consider this subject as an option and how it plays a role in every day life. I sat down with two of my peers with the textile teacher one afternoon and brainstormed new ideas that could be brought to the school to encourage greater numbers to take up Textiles. Art is a very successful and popular subject within the school with all the pupils achieving A*- C grades at both GCSE and A level. This is already a great advantage to the school and shows that their is a strong seize to learn about more creative subjects. I do feel very strongly about encouraging young people to explore the wider art subjects as a practicing textile designer. I don’t want to see art as a dying subject. Art departments currently set each of their students with the exact same task in the hope that they exceed their grades. The work produced by the majority of the students is acrylic paint based canvas and paintings, with the full understanding that the students have to practice for this. My proposal would be to deliver the complete opposite of what is currentky being delivered. By doing this I would like to bring in my own proffesion of textiles, as there isnt a lot of this in the school, I would consider doing brint work onto fabric or simple hand embrodiery techniques, ones I think they would pick up quickly, I wouldnt do anything too complicated, this would allow them to see different spesilisms within the textile world and hopefully gain interest.
Discuss any relevant and influential key figures/processes that you have explored. Provide useful links or upload relevant images to support your comments and reflections. How may these now impact upon your work and ideas?
I spent a lot of my time in Mr Eplett’s class and it was very interesting to see how his teaching methods and skills differed from class to class and how each year group responded to him too. I enjoyed being a part of his classes because I felt as though I got a lot out of each day - particularly vital teaching skills. One aspect I thought was a brilliant idea was how Mr Eplett created a full sketch book of his own, with a large variety of techniques and ideas just for his students to be inspired by - if they were ever stuck with what to do, they had something to refer back too and draw inspiration from. This encouraged each of the students to bring something outstanding to their work. The students targeted for the higher marks were the students who would push themselves to try and get specific techniques into their own work. They in turn would result in top marks. By contrast the students that were not as bothered or focused and just trying to achieve a pass (by their own choice) could still have
the chance to be inspired by looking through the fabulous sketch book. The idea of the sketch book by Mr Eplett was something I did find very inspiring and would potentially like to adopt this for my own workshop for the day; I’ld like to create mini versions of the work the Year 7 pupils will be doing on the day. This would allow us to make sure the students will be getting the maximum out of the day and help me to see if everything works out the way it should do. This would provide a means of pre-empting any setbacks before the happen. This has also encouraged me to do similar sorts of things when it comes to my own work, in effect a more thoughtful approach to trying and practicing something before the real thing for better and more accurate results.
Identify the area(s) or process(es) you intend to explore- and why. How do they relate to your practice, and the professional context of your work?
On the last afternoon of placement we had a feedback session with Louise Klink, (the Head of the Art Department in DACA). The very first point that she wanted to put across is that we are creative thinkers, everything we think about has a creative edge. I found this very interesting because it made me look and refer back to everything I had learnt so far during this placement and how I could apply what I had learnt back into my own practice. During placement I realised a lot about the impact of being creative thinkers and I noticed little things for example how I notice and pay more attention to anything artistic around me. Photography played a massive part in this and I picked up on myself taking photos of everything I see that has a creative reference of me. I find that I can always refer back to the photographs as being artistically beautiful, and there are many areas and processes that I would like to explore whilst doing the workshop. Louise gave us ideas from past workshops that had been done such as making a film, an E-book, a variety of blogs, and to take a large number of photographs of the day. The key aspect from the day is for the students to achieve a large volume of work in a short space of time; to provide an extraordinarily different day from the norm and to have a lot of fun in addition to all the hard work. There are many areas we have carefully identified for the workshop that will allow us to reflect back on with our own professions in mind. One example of this is the different kind of media that we are very excited to be using.
Reflect and discuss a key discovery/interest (whether these are materials process or context led) and discuss within a professional aspect.
I found it a very surprising discovery that I really enjoyed teaching the younger years. I have enjoyed all the processes so far and the general context of being a teacher. This would most definitely be a profession that I would consider entering. All the physical work we are doing for the workshop has provided learning opportunities for myself with many new and different processes that I can use back at University. In addition, other job professions I would consider researching would be that of a Pattern Surface Designer, a Buyer, a Photographer or a general Textile Designer. The reason for these choices is that they have each played some part within the school or of the workshop. Having enjoyed or learnt a great deal so far in Unit X, I am confident in finding a profession over the next couple of months that I would like to pursue.
The picture above is of some of the techniques that Mr Eplett had included in his skecth book for the students.
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