PLACEMENT14TH-18TH MAY

SOUTH DARTMOOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE

CASE STUDYbethany wrayford

Intoduction and learning outcomes My placement is at South Dartmoor Commu-nity College, Ashburton. I went to school here from year 7-13. I will be observing lessons and working as teaching assistant and observing lessons for a week in the art department. In this case study I will pick out lessons I went to which I particularly enjoyed or that were most informative and helpful.

My learning outcomes for the end of this week are:

• Gainconfidencewithinteractingandtalk-ing to students

• Talk to as many teachers and student teachers as possible to increase practical knowledge.

• Take part in classes of as many different age groups as possible.

• Talk to students about ideas and develop-ment in their projects.

• Apply my skills I have learnt at University to the workplace.

•I arrived at South Dartmoor Community Col-lege and signed in at reception then went and met Bea Tyndale who is the head of the art department. She introduced me to her tutor group who she shares with another tutor. I started off going around the class asking some students what makes a good teacher and some responses I got were, younger teachers, fair teachers and teachers who aren’t afraid to be themselves. The morning registrations are 25 minutes every morning so I will try and talk to every-one in the tutor group throughout the week.

Lesson 1 and 2 Year 10 Graphic design This class was run by a PGCE student teacher. The class are in the middle of a live brief at the development stage. The brief is to create a

new logo for 5 schools (South Dartmoor, Buckfastleigh, Widecombe, Ashburton and Ilsington). The schools have just changed to an academy status and the logo has to pro-mote exciting learning for life but also has to feature aspects of all 5 schools. So I went around the classroom and just asked students how they were getting on and asked them to talk through their work and what their next step is. I asked them how they would develop their idea, thinking about colour, layout, space and type. I think it helped them realise where they would go next and what they need to do. One thing I was surprised about was their computerskillsinfirstyearofGCSE.Itwasofa good ability. It’s a very fast project about 4 weeksandIexplainedthatthisreflectsindus-try and the fast pace of working. At the end of the class I chatted to the PGCE student about how the course is going for her and she has completed a previous degree in art and thought year 9s were a tough year and she already has a job lined up.

Lesson 3 Year 10 Photography This lesson was with John Bradford and I listened in on tutorials and learnt a bit about how to talk to students about their work. They are working on a movement project and I helped a few students with Photoshop so used skills I acquired at university. John talked about targets and aims for them and recom-mendations but before he says any of this he always lets them explain their work. At the end of the lesson we talked about how you can’t give all your attention to the bad kids otherwise you could spend the whole lesson like that.

Lesson 1 and 2 year 10 photographyI’ve decided to observe this class to compare with the other year 10 class I observed yes-terday. I went around most of the class andchatted to students and asked them to chat

through their work with me and where they were heading next and what the next shoot will be. I think it would have been good if I knew more about photography to give them more ideas and reference material. Was nice to see such a variety of how they have inter-preted movement. One student had combined landscapes with close up of animal’s feathers/fur and lowering the opacity, I loved it and it looked very professional. Another student looked at street photography and has started to create magazine covers and starting to give it a purpose and context which is great to see from year 10’s. Also a student explained how the image on screen looks different than when it’s printed. So I used my experience about printing and explained that RGB is for screen work and CMYK is for print. One thing I noticed John do was sort a sort of problem student out at the beginning of the lesson and set them a task to be doing in the lesson so they aren’t disruptive. I feel since Mondaymyconfidencehasgrownatbeingable to talk to students and suggest ideas for development. Some students are starting to approach me now for help which is nice and helpsmyconfidence.

Lesson 3 Year 10 graphics same group from mondauBea Tyndale explained how in this lesson she’s going to move the class around to sit next to someone who they haven’t sat next to before. They then swapped sketch books and looked through them. They then suggested ideas for the other person and said what they thought of their work. Furthermore Bea explained that half the class work very well and some don’t work as well so moving them around allows them to look at work they may never have seen and they will get new ideas. Then for the rest of the lesson I went around and asked students who I hadn’t seen on Monday

andaskedthemhowtheywillrefinetheirlogos. Some of the work is amazing, such a high quality for a year 10 group. Some of the students who weren’t working as well I went around and they were still on the emulation stage so I encouraged them to combine some of their emulations and they then had a logo in a matter of minutes and it looked good. All they had to was put their mind to it. After the lesson I talked to Bea about what happens to the chosen logo she said the school want to get a graphic designer in to work with the student to produce the logo which will be used for the 5 schools and I offered to work with the student when they chose the logo and she said she will suggest this to the head teacher. It would be a good experience for me to work with a client so hopefully it all goes ahead.

Lesson 2 Year 7 artI decided to sit with the students and partake in the activity in this lesson. The task was to useaviewfinderandmake4boxesintheirsketch book and choose 4 views of a black and white image and draw them. I was sat on a girls table and did have to keep encouraging themtofinishtheir4imagesfornextles-son. As in the next lesson they will be using their new knowledge of the colour when to colour the images using opposing colours and harmonising colours. So they can put their knowledge to use.

Lesson 3 Year 10 artThe year 10’s are doing a project based around the natural form as a starting point. They have all taken off into their own direc-tion and have 2 weeks left in the project. I went around and talked to a few students and again such a variety. A few of the girls are lookingatflowerssoIrecommendedillustra-tors and artists to make them more than just images

symbolise summer than just a sun and beach, andthinkofanelementthatreflectstheirfestival. Some groups were struggling on a name so I had to get them to think of one there and then as they should have been past that stage and then I helped them with a logo design idea. The groups had a lot of strong ideas but it was just focus that some of them lacked. Once I had a chat with some of them who were confused they seemed to of had an idea and they were off which was nice to see and I think there will be some great outcomes to this project.

evaluationI think this week has gone really well. My confidencewithinteractingwithstudentshassteadily grown throughout the week and I feel students expect me to talk to them, as im an adult in the room and I shouldn’t feel hesitant. I’ve chatted to a variety of teachers from different departments and different levels. I found the PGCE teachers good to talk to as they are still in early stages of teaching career and they were helpful in skills such as lesson planning ideas and have explained how the course is run in Plymouth. Other teachers have said, a clear precise lesson plan is so vital forthelessonsoyouareconfidentandknowwhat’s happening in the lesson. Also dealing withproblemstudentsfirstandnotgivingthem all your attention but just giving them a task for the lesson keeps them busy. Little tips like these I will remember as I can apply them to teaching in the future. I have been involved in most years throughout the school except year 12 and 13 as they have handed in their projects and they are in the process of being marked. So I would quite like to come back at the beginning of the school year and work with them as looking through their sketch books I saw some really great work. Just go-ing around and chatting to students like mini tutorials was really fun, it allowed them to show me their work, explain their ideas and

imagesofflowers.Sonowsomearelookingat sculpture and some of them decided to go really illustrative. I was really impressed by the sketch books and how much research they had done and the way the sketch books were very full and thought out. A PGCE student teacher was also observing and said how natural I looked with the students, which was nice to hear. She said the experience helps yougainconfidenceandknowledgebutnoth-ingcancompareyoutothefirstlessonyouhave to teach. But after you have that under your belt it comes quite naturally.

Lesson 1 year 7 artThe outside classroom was booked for this lesson and the students were going to go sketching outside. So I helped lead them up to where they would be working and I had a group of 5 students to look after to make sure they wouldn’t be messing around. As they gotstartedthefirealarmwentoffandwehadto take the students back to the main campus where they would register quickly and safely. We then went back to the class room as there was no time to go back to the outdoor class room, the students seemed quite disap-pointed. But they were asked to carry on with some sketch book work instead.

Lesson 2 year 8 artYear 8’s this lesson were carrying on their festival project. They were all working in groups and had to create a festival, give it a name, location, dates, line up etc. then they had to create a logo this lesson and eventu-ally a poster. It’s a really fun project so I went around the classroom talking to students about their logo designs and how it needs to reflecttheirfestival.Itriedtogetstudentstostay away from the typical logos, for example a group called their festival ‘Summerset’ so I tried to get them to think of other things that

where they were going next. But also if they were stuck I could recommend where to go next or suggest some new ideas as getting different people’s opinions on your work is very important and I think it’s very motivating to have new fresh ideas. I’ve used my technical skills I have learnt and knowledge of artists from university this week. I’ve been able to help photography students on Photoshop and also recommend artists to students for research which they may not have thought of. Remembering artists off the top of your head is hard though, so I may start a journal noting down different artists I like. This week has also given me a work opportunity to work with a year 10 student for the new logo for the 5 academy schools in the area, which is really exciting for me to start working with in the industry and helping to create work which will be used. I think this week has been a good initial experience into teaching but I think I want to be sure it’s what I want to do so Bea Tyndale recommended doing some teacher assistant work to gain more experience to make sure this is what I want to do in the futureandtobuildmyconfidenceupaswell.

evaluation from bea tyndale, head of artBeth visited South Dartmoor Community college for a week during which she was able to experience teaching at Key Stage 3,4 and 5. Shefittedinverywellinthedepartmentandduring lessons supported students in graph-ics lessons giving them excellent feedback on their designs and provided them with useful targets following tutorials. Whilst observing Bethwasconfidentspeakingtostudentsandrelated to them and their work excellently, she shadowed a tutor during her observations so has begun to develop an understanding of the pastoral role teachers also have.If Beth chooses to follow this career path I think she will make an excellent teacher, possibly

specialising in Graphics as knowing her as a students she is very organised and this is a key attributewithinteaching.Sheisalsoreflectiveand during conversations we had during the observationweekshewasabletoreflectonher experiences and discuss realistically the prospect of teaching and the skills she will need to develop.During future observations Beth may like to consider observing lessons in other subject areas and if it was held during an earlier time of the year she would gain insight into seeing year 11 lessons as students complete their coursework and exam as this hadallbeenfinishedatthetimeofBeth’sobservation week.

Year 7’s Fauvism project. SOme sketches i did in the fIRST LESSON. A QUICK PAINTING I DID IN THE SECOND LESSON AND THE IMAGE I WAS WORKING FROM.

year 7 class quick starting exercise to show what they will be doing in the lesson- about how shading can make something look 3D.

pgce students lesson plan for the year 7 outdoor classroom session.

some quick stetches and ideas of the year 8 festival project.