July 2020

2 3

Foreword

Contents

Seow Ai WeeDeputy Director & Master Teacher (Art)

STAR

Culture of Care in the Art Classroom

↘ Chun Wee San

4

Collegiality and Community Amidst Calamity—A Teacher Mama's Perspective

↘ Siti Saleha Bte Salleh

10

Origami Face Mask Design Through an Inquiry-Based Approach

↘ Nadiah Binte Abdul Nasir ↘ Tan Khoon Lim, Marshall ↘ Azhar Mohamad Ali

20

Fostering Inclusion Through the Arts

↘ Joyce Teo ↘ Jean Loo

49

Impacting the Community with Art

↘ Angelina Chia

55

Making Deep Connections in the New Norm

↘ Nur Ilyana Binte Mohamed Anwar

59

From My Art Room to Yours: Leading Together as an Art Teacher Community

↘ Lisa Zhang ↘ Tan Wei Ling

64

An Artsy Relay ↘ Nursidah Binte Abdul Wahid ↘ Suhaila Bidin ↘ Tan Wei Ling ↘ Norfaraidh Binte Talib

70

#SGartchersMAKE ↘ Maslina M Jalani ↘ Ng Kuan Shin ↘ Maefrize Khoo ↘ Shirley Toh

75

#ArtHacks : Tips and Considerations in Using Videos in Teaching

↘ Chia Ying ↘ Lorraine Lee

81

STAR-Post (Art) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the prior consent of STAR.July 2020

13Physically Distant but Socially Connected: Fostering Empathy in the Time of COVID-19

↘ Nurul Ain Samsuri

34Ask Me About My Work! ↘ Silvia Lim Si Qi

38Celebrating Diversity in CCPS

↘ Chloe Tan

41Growing a Community of Artists in Changing Times

↘ Karen Zainal

sTo ies Alive! ↘ Pushpalatha Krishnan ↘ Jasmine Ngo ↘ Yoe Gek Li ↘ Nurfarha Abdul Rauf

26

When the Art Unit began brainstorming ideas for this issue of STAR-Post back in January, we didn’t know our decision to focus on fostering a culture of care through art would become a critical topic in the following months to come. We have had to grapple, and are still grappling, with major disruption and rapid change as we continuously adapt to the evolving COVID-19 situation. While we are not frontliners in the hospital fighting the virus, we are certainly frontliners in the classroom fighting against anxiety, stress and fear experienced by our students. We also readily stepped up to be learning design mentors and well-being coaches for each other. Many of you generously shared lessons in the Community Gallery on Student Learning Space; forwarded links to online resources via WhatsApp; and posted words of assurance and cheer on Facebook. #SGartcherunite #SGartchercares

The articles in this issue show how our art colleagues have swiftly re-imagined learning experiences that would instil gratitude, foster empathy, build resilience and give hope to our students—from designing face masks to celebrate everyday heroes during this crisis, to collaborating with CCE colleagues to write notes of appreciation for healthcare workers. A few articles showed how art teachers were already fostering a culture of care pre-COVID-19 days by making efforts to celebrate diversity and acknowledge different strengths through art making and art discussion. To learn more about fostering different aspects of care for students, amongst students, and for the community, read MTT Wee San’s article Culture of Care in the Art Classroom.

I hope this issue will encourage and inspire you.

4 5

Culture of Care in the Art Classroom

Chun Wee SanMaster Teacher (Art)

STAR

The Learn for Life movement aims to prepare our students for an increasingly complex future. Learn for Life is “a value, an attitude and a skill that our students need to possess” to be future-ready (Ministry of Education, 2018). To nurture these lifelong learning attitudes and skills, teachers need to help students find joy in learning and develop in their students, the intrinsic motivation to learn. This article focuses on care as being integral to fostering Learn for Life, enabling it to flourish and thrive. We will look at ways in which art teachers can create a culture of care in the art classrooms.

“… the power of teaching to student strengths—of tapping into students' areas of greatest comfort, confidence, and passion when we find that teaching to the “typical” student doesn't work.”

Tomlinson & Jarvis, 2006

Care for Students: Teaching to StrengthsSingapore teachers Lead, Care, and Inspire. What makes a caring teacher? A caring teacher will “believe that every child can learn”, “connect with and motivate the child”, “shape the child’s values and character”, and “help the child grow as a person and bring out the best in the child” (MOE Schools Work Plan Seminar, 2012). To motivate and bring out the best in students, teachers must first know their learners,

and value each of them as individuals, recognising that students have “diverse learning needs and bring with them a wide range of experiences, beliefs, knowledge, and skills” (MOE Singapore Curriculum Philosophy, 2017).

With the variety of students in our classrooms, how might teachers ensure that everyone is engaged in meaningful learning? Tomlinson and Jarvis (2006) encouraged teachers to teach to

student strengths, “tapping into students’ areas of greatest comfort, confidence, and passion” (p. 17). The authors explained that this approach helps students appreciate their own strengths and those of their peers, perceive learning positively, and learn

to use their strengths to overcome weaknesses. Teachers could teach to strengths by connecting the curriculum to students’ interests, prior knowledge, learning preferences, and readiness levels.

Starting from strengths enables teachers to plan lessons that allow students to learn best as individuals, with each of them finding “a good learning fit in the classroom” (Tomlinson, 2017). Students will also feel more competent, and hence more likely to engage and persist in tasks. Researchers have identified

competence as one of the key elements of intrinsic motivation. Based on the Self-Determination theory (a theory of motivation), competence, autonomy, and relatedness are three psychological needs in every human being (Deci & Ryan, 2000), and students will become more intrinsically driven when these basic needs are fulfilled.

Ong, Y. K. (2018, September). Opening Address by Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education [Opening Address]. Ministry of Education Schools Work Plan Seminar, Singapore.

Heng, S. K. (2012, September). Keynote Address by Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education [Keynote Address]. Ministry of Education Schools Work Plan Seminar, Singapore.

Ministry of Education, Singapore (2017). Singapore Curriculum Philosophy. Retrieved from https://www.moe.gov.sg/about/singapore-teaching-practice/singapore-curriculum-philosophy/

Tomlinson, C. A., & Jarvis, J. (2006). Teaching beyond the book. Educational Leadership, 64(1), 16–21.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2017). How to differentiate instruction in academically diverse classrooms. ASCD.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.

6 7

As students work collaboratively to co-construct meaning from knowledge and experiences with one another, they learn to consider different viewpoints, build on each other’s ideas, make shared decisions, listen with understanding, and care for the thoughts and feelings of others.

Peers can make a difference to students’ experiences with school and learning (Wilkinson & Fung, 2002).

Referencing the aforementioned Self-Determination theory, relatedness is about caring relationships. For schools, the feeling of relatedness comes from the close bonds that students form with their peers and teachers. When students feel cared for and supported by members of their learning community, they develop a greater sense of belonging that can enhance the intrinsic motivation to learn.

When teachers look at students through the lens of strengths, they will also discover the diversity of strengths that can be leveraged to enrich the learning for all. Classrooms can be collaborative learning spaces where “teachers and students use the power of peers positively to progress

learning” (Hattie, 2012). Teachers can create regular opportunities for students to share knowledge, ideas and experiences, moving them from independent to interdependent or mutual learning (Boud, 2001).

Peer learning may include:

Wilkinson, I. A., & Fung, I. Y. (2002). Small-group composition and peer effects. International Journal of Educational Research, 37(5), 425–447.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge.

Boud, D. (2001). Making the move to peer learning. In Boud, D., Cohen, R. & Sampson, J. (Eds.) (2001). Peer Learning in Higher Education: Learning from and with each other. London: Kogan Page (now Routledge), 1-20.

Noddings, N. (2012). The caring relation in teaching. Oxford Review of Education, 38(6), 771–781.

Ministry of Education, Singapore (2014). Character & Citizenship Education Syllabuses. Retrieved from https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/character-citizenship-education/

Essentially, it is the “hope of all caring teachers that their students will enter the adult world prepared to care” (Tomlinson, C. A., 2012, p. 780). Teachers can design learning experiences to nurture students who

will care for others in various contexts and actively contribute to the community and nation through their acts of caring (MOE Character & Citizenship Education Syllabus, 2014).

Examples of art learning experiences that extend care beyond the classrooms are:

Teachers can also introduce students to role models who have used art to create positive change in their communities. Teachers are also role models. As the nation battles with COVID-19, we have seen how some art teachers led by

example to show care and support for the community. These real-life examples demonstrate to students that they can tap on the transformative power of art to effect change.

❶ Care for the Community

Care Amongst Students: Facilitating Peer Learning

Care Beyond the Classrooms

↘ Reciprocal teaching, which involves two or more students teaching one another.

↘ Cooperative learning using the Jigsaw method, where 1. Students are organised into small ‘home’ groups and each member is assigned a different learning component.2. All members with the same learning component come together to form ‘experts’ groups to discuss ideas.3. Students then return to their ‘home’ groups to share their learning as ‘experts’ of the assigned learning component.

↘ Giving and receiving feedback using question prompts and sentence starters.

↘ Idea generation in groups. ↘ Class discussions using the Gallery Walk technique, in

which students share their work with peers, or examine artefacts / artworks together.

↘ Learning partner discussion using strategies like, Think-Pair-Share, Three Before Me (i.e. students have to reach out to three friends for help before asking the teacher).

↘ Art-based Values-In-Action projects to show kindness towards people and the environment.

↘ Community art activities that foster social connections. ↘ Art tasks that allow students to raise awareness about

the causes they care about. ↘ Collaborative artworks to share messages of hope

and positivity. ↘ Gratitude art projects to express appreciation to people

for their contributions to the community and nation. ↘ Design tasks that aim to solve problems with real-world

relevance, for the betterment of the community.

8 9

As an art teaching fraternity, let’s continue to support one another to care. There are many ways in which we can care for one another, whether in real or virtual spaces, synchronous or asynchronous platforms, formal or informal settings. We can come together to exchange pedagogical knowledge, share teaching resources,

grow lesson ideas collaboratively, make art together, provide just-in-time advice, offer words of encouragement, or celebrate the learning of our art teachers and students. Through these, we also strengthen our professional knowledge and skills, thereby enhancing our capabilities to help students learn art better.

We teach art and care through art, as we believe in the importance of art education. In The Arts and the Creation of Mind, Eisner (2002) identified ten lessons that the arts teach, and argued that the arts was essential to a rich educational experience. For Singapore schools, art is integral to the holistic development of every student; the value of art, aims of art education and art learning outcomes are articulated in the syllabus documents (MOE Art Education Syllabuses, 2018). STAR’s research has also shown that art when well taught, offers a unique platform for students to develop the 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes, which will better prepare them for a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and

Ambiguous (VUCA) future (MOE PAM Research Report, 2016).

We teach art and care through art, as we have experienced the benefits of art in our lives, and we care for our students to have similar meaningful learning through art. It is often an art teacher’s hope that students are empowered through art in the different domains of life. As we continue to teach art and care through art, let’s endeavor to make the many lessons that we teach through art stick, and help students develop qualities, such as resilience, courage, curiosity, open-mindedness and imagination, which will become resources that all students can draw upon as they navigate through life.

Thank you for caring through art.

❷ Care for the Art Teaching Fraternity ❸ Care Through Art

Eisner, E. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven; London: Yale University Press.

Ministry of Education, Singapore (2018). Arts Education Syllabuses. Retrieved from https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/arts-education/

Physical Education and Sports Teacher Academy (PESTA) and Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR). (2016). PAM research report: Enhancing 21st century competencies in Physical Education, Art and Music. Singapore: Ministry of Education. https://academyofsingap oreteachers.moe.edu.sg/docs/libra riesprovider4/research-publi cation/pam-full-single.pdf

“Caring is not just a feeling. It is a continuous giving of self, both emotionally and in action … What motivates teachers to be caring educators is their passion—for their craft, for their students, for their moral stance on the value of education and its transforming powers for every human being.”

Ng, 2017

Ng, P. T. (2017). Learning from Singapore: The power of paradox. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

10 11

Collegiality and Community Amidst Calamity—A Teacher

Mama’s Perspective

This illustrated article is contributed by Siti who also participated as a teacher-artist in this year’s a|edge exhibition, drawing herself into the character of ‘Teacher Mama’.

COVID-19 has immensely altered school life for teachers and students alike. How has the teaching and learning of art changed over the past 3 months? Colleagues and friends, you are invited to share your tips and add comments on how you demonstrated resilience and self-care to yourself and others during this unprecedented period.

↘ Share 1 useful online teaching tool and suggest how it can be used in the teaching and learning of art.

↘ Share 1 tip to ensure self-care and care to others.

Scan the QR code or click the link to access the Padlet wall!https://padlet.com/siti_saleha_salleh_a/edtiwpus4s8pxz3t

During the full home-based learning period, working from home meant even more hours of trying to be productive as we constantly struggled to strike a balance between work and family time. We missed our students and the

rapport that only physical interaction could bring. We missed our colleagues as the camaraderie built over afternoons of marking together in the staff lounge became non-existent. We missed marking with real red pens too.

fHBL Experience

Siti Saleha Bte SallehArt Teacher

View and Share Ideas!

Meridian Primary School

12 13

Reopening of School and 2 Months Post-fHBLHow did we manage with a steep learning curve and the myriad of fancy online teaching tools? How did we continue to care for ourselves and the people around us during this unprecedented period? How has the teaching and learning of art changed over the past 3 months?

For me, the greatest challenge was to strike a balance between attending to my students’ needs as well as my family’s. Working from home sounded appealing initially but with more flexibility, I saw my working hours stretched. At that point, I realised that as much as I wanted to look after my students and my family, I needed to care for myself too.

Physically Distant but Socially Connected: Fostering

Empathy in the Time of COVID-19

Nurul Ain SamsuriArt Coordinator

Yumin Primary School

Adversity teaches us empathy and resilience, and the COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique opportunity for students to experience and practise empathy in an authentic, meaningful setting. This art project I designed provided a platform for students to develop their Social Emotional Learning (SEL) competencies, by empowering

them to have empathy for others and the environment. My experience as a PAL teacher has taught me that SEL can be organically infused in art lessons. I see a great parallel between the roles of a PAL teacher and that of an art teacher, specifically the roles listed in #2, 6, and 8.

1. Facilitate learning though varied and engaging pedagogies.2. Cultivate a safe environment for meaningful learning social interaction

to take place.3. Construct a learning environment that welcomes exploration.4. Express joy in learning and model curiosity

(i.e. explore and learn along with the children).5. Provide feedback that is specific and descriptive, but not evaluative.6. Recognise ‘teachable moments’ and ask questions that prompt reflection.7. Establish a culture where social interaction can be frequently accomplished

in small group activities.8. Help children make meaning out of their experiences in relation to

their social world.

Roles of Practitioners of PAL

14 15

A Two-Pronged Approach to Fostering Empathy

Fostering Empathy through the Critique Session

Fostering Empathy Through the Theme

Dr Brené Brown, a leading researcher on empathy, posits that the four key attributes of empathy are perspective-taking, being non-judgmental, recognising emotion in others and communication (2013). Using empathy as the motivating force behind this Primary 6 art project entitled My Home, I planned my lessons with the following guiding questions in mind:

I wanted students to practise empathy not only in their daily interactions with others and the environment, but also in the context of their art learning. I achieved this by incorporating Marvin Bartel’s Empathic Critique routine

during the critique session in the classroom. Bartel states that an empathic critique culture helps facilitate art learning and equips students with self-directed learning strategies in art and in life (2017).

Under the learning domains of See and Appreciate, my class of 38 Primary 6 students were engaged in two thinking routines to encourage stimulus-based observation and critical thinking:

The COVID-19 pandemic provided a rare opportunity for students to acutely understand the importance of having a safe and comfortable home, particularly during a global crisis. During the online

and class discussions, I posed mostly open-ended questions to allow them to tap on their lived experiences and to challenge them to think more critically and reflexively about their homes.

↘ What is the difference between a house and a home? ↘ What does my home mean to me? ↘ Who / What am I grateful for in my home? ↘ How do I make my home feel safer? ↘ What makes a good neighbour? Why is being a good

neighbour important? ↘ What can I do to help those in need in my community?

The new norm: Teaching and learning while practicing safe distancing.

Bartel, M. (2017). Art Teacher Guide Smart-Soft Critique. [online] bartelart.com. Available at: https://www.bartelart.com/arted/critique08.html/

Screenshots of the art discussion component of the SLS lesson and students’ responses.

Brown, B. (2013). RSA Short: Empathy. [video] brenebrown.com. Available at: https://brenebrown.com/videos/

Lesson ❶: SLS (Art Discussion)

1. See-Think-Wonder referencing a mixed-media diorama by our Art Club students: This artwork was meaningfully chosen as not only was it linked to the theme and a pre-HBL discussion, it was also designed by the students from the class. This provided multiple perspectives in the responses given as students took on the stance of both the artist and the viewer.

2. I used to think … But now, I think … on what it means to be a good neighbour: Using a video by HDB’s Good Neighbour Movement to spark a discussion on neighbourliness, students were able to reflect on their own understanding of the term, rethink their biases and subsequently change their points of view.

16 17

Under the learning domain of Express, students were then tasked to design their dream home. The guiding questions to facilitate their art making were:

Inspired by the #HowAreYou Check-in Kit provided on OPAL, I started our very first post-Circuit Breaker lesson with a self-check-in worksheet as the students’ well-being was the topmost priority. To encourage students to pen down their honest thoughts and feelings about returning to school, I led by example by sharing my own sentiments first.

I focused the next part of the lesson on an open, earnest discussion about COVID-19-related events in and out of Singapore. It was crucial for

students to be given a safe platform to process their emotions and for their anxieties to be heard. To grow awareness and foster empathy on how COVID-19 has impacted the different communities in Singapore, including the migrant workers, we then had a discourse on how to help those in our community who are in need. By the end of the insightful dialogue, students collectively agreed that the three best ways to provide help was to Advocate, Volunteer and Donate (AVD).

I was truly impressed by the students’ submissions! Their creative and detailed artworks exhibited the careful and thorough planning that had gone into creating them. They also demonstrated commendable artistic behaviour through the purposeful choices made in their artwork, and voiced in their artist statement that explained the functions of various parts of their dream homes.

Lesson ❷: SLS (Art Making) Lesson ❸: Self Check-in

↘ How big would your home be? ↘ Will you be living alone or with all your family and friends? ↘ Will it be filled with state-of-the-art facilities or simple

household gadgets? ↘ Will it be in the city or countryside? ↘ How would you decorate it?

Students’ ‘Dream Home’ submissions.

Students’ Self Check-in responses.

18 19

Students participated in Bartel’s Empathic Critique routine (2017) when presenting their artworks. The questions that were posed during this session included:

Provide students with a sense of security where they can open up and share their opinions and ideas in a judgement-free zone. Teachers have to constantly reassure students that their opinions and ideas matter and that all feelings are valid. If you are willing to share and admit the times when you have been judgmental / prejudiced, it will bolster students’ courage to open up about their own. It is crucial that both teachers and students see mistakes and failure as signs of effort and progress. Reward acts of empathy and discourage negativity in the classroom.

Introduce multicultural resources that include voices from Singaporeans, women and minority communities. This has the power to eliminate negative cultural stereotypes and encourage respect for others. Whenever possible, highlight contemporary issues that are salient in these resources. Students who are aware of such issues can learn to be empathetic critical thinkers as they discover the world and their place in it.

Encourage diverse ideas and responses from students that really challenge them to think creatively and critically. Cultivate in students the habit of asking higher-order thinking questions so they can be engaged in metacognition and self-evaluation. Incorporate Choice-Based Learning or Bartel’s Empathic Critique routine in your lessons.

Students are strongly influenced by their role models. They observe, imitate and form habits of their own. They develop empathy when you show them how to, instead of just telling them to. Share personal stories and examples to encourage students to do the same.

The open-ended questions allowed for more than one correct answer which led to diverse and interesting responses from the students. The artist presenting was able to listen to and empathise with the audience and their interpretation of his / her artwork, and vice versa. The critique session was a fun and engaging collaborative segment of the lesson, with students taking the lead in asking and answering questions put forth by their peers. The

students also learnt that drawing a functional house required expertise and in-depth thinking / planning and consequently, expressed a deeper appreciation for architects and construction workers. The critique session not only afforded a richer self-reflection from the students, it also empowered them to update their designs, taking into account their peers’ input!

Lesson ❹: Art Critique & Self-Reflection ❶ Establish an Open and Encouraging Environment

❷ Diversify Learning Resources

❸ Welcome Open-Ended Tasks and Questions

❹ Be an Empathy Role Model

↘ What do you see? Why do you notice that? ↘ What is the most original or creative thing you see? How

would you explain that? ↘ How does it make you feel? Why do you say so? ↘ What do you wonder about?

RecommendationsEmpathy is a habitual interpersonal skill that requires deliberate cultivation of motivation, ideally set within a safe and nurturing environment. To become empathetic natives, students must be given ample, well-planned opportunities to practise showing empathy to others over a span of time.

Given these kinds of intricacies, organising meaningful experiences that foster discussions and / or acts of empathy require thoughtful and deliberate planning. Here is a summary of steps you can take to mindfully infuse empathy in your lessons.

Students presenting their artworks during the critique session.

Search for ‘My Home (P6 Term 2 Art Project)’ in the SLS Community Gallery for this lesson!

20 21

Connect and WonderThinking flexibly during COVID-19 Circuit Breaker period in Term 2, the visual art teachers of Bukit Batok Secondary School (BBSS) embarked on a project that would be meaningful to our Secondary Two cohort. We worked on a learning process that required the students to define and identify their heroes during this challenging time, and design a personalised origami face mask ❶

of their heroes during Full Home-Based Learning (FHBL). We hoped to rally our students amid the pandemic.

We hoped to develop our students’ sense of connection with their community by putting them through the process of exploring their emotions as they braced through the Circuit Breaker period. We saw this as an opportunity for them to make substantial meaning of their personal experience

❶ The origami face mask borrows from the symbolism of the indispensable role of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is not designed nor recommended to be worn as a replacement for one’s usual face masks.

and give recognition to it through the development of their art work.

At this stage, we asked our students to discover and re-look their understanding of nation building as they reevaluated their concept of heroes. There were many opportunities abound for them to capture Singapore’s

positive experiences in battling the COVID-19 pandemic. Referencing the sample masks that the BBSS art teachers had much fun making, we hoped that the students would find this art task meaningful and draw inspiration within themselves to create wonderful design ideas of their own.

Sample face mask designs done by Art teachers

Screen capture showing Padlet for students to upload their research images found online.

InvestigateThe theme of the project was Heroes in Crisis. Students were guided to research on inspirational images through these questions, ‘Who is your hero in times of crisis?’ and ‘What kind of environment would you like to portray your hero in?’

In their investigative journey, the students uploaded their research of

online images on Padlet. They were also encouraged to document their thoughts on their chosen images. Their diverse responses became avenues for deeper conversations with each other, allowing them to converse about these experiences for others to listen with understanding and empathy.

Origami Face Mask Design Through an Inquiry-Based

Approach

Nadiah Binte Abdul NasirSubject Head (Art)

Tan Khoon Lim, MarshallArt Teacher

Azhar Mohamad AliArt Teacher

Bukit Batok Secondary School

22 23

Examples of Student Responses to the question—“Who is Your Hero in Crisis?”

Student A Student B

“My heroes are the doctors, nurses and front line workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. They are important as they can solve this problem with their medical abilities and possibly cure all the infected patients soon. They risk their lives the most to help others, without asking for anything in return. They are selfless in that fact. This is why they are worthy of being heroes we look up to.”

“Delivery workers—They face social discrimination as they might be potential virus carriers and are thus treated badly. This is unacceptable as what rights do we have to discriminate them? All they want is to earn money and to support their family. Hence, I choose them as my hero because they have to risk their lives to deliver food to our doorstep every day.”

Student C Student D

“Immigration Officers—They check and prevent COVID-19 from (entering our country) from other countries and are protecting us from the virus.”

“The Authorities—They help to place measures to ensure our safety.”

Lesson sample.

Students’ practices demonstrating an understanding of drawing human figures.

Make: Drawing Human Figures and Origami Face MaskThe lessons were scaffolded into four stages. At Stage One, they were taught to draw human figures. The knowledge and understanding of this skill and concept enabled them to amplify the gestures that they wished to portray for their identified heroes.

At Stage Two, they learnt to draw human figures in perspective, incorporating their observational skills and understanding of foreshortening.

With these essential forms in place, Stage Three began the creation process where students incorporated elements of motion to their drawn images. The process in its entirety allowed the students to stretch and explore their imagination and skills playfully as they embraced the opportunity to learn from mistakes made.

Things you’ll need are as follows.

Origami Face Mask video tutorial created by Mdm Nadiah.

Again, you can use a ruler to have neater folds.

Take note of the measurements. You’ll need to draw at the back of your face mask.

Place the rubber bands at the sides of the face mask.

After folding, secure it by stapling the four corners.

Extend your rubber bands if you need to as follows.

24 25

Planning of a Future Exhibition: Whale of HopeOur vision is to create an art installation that fosters inter-disciplinary learning with subjects such as literature and history. This collaboration promises opportunities for students to be engaged in inter-disciplinary thinking. We have plans to create an installation artwork by both students and teachers along

one of our school’s prime areas such as the Perseverance block. It will be entitled “Whale of Hope”. The location would serve as a pit-stop for the students to reflect on the pandemic’s reality, its impact on Singapore and world, and help students gain a sense of hope and gratitude.

Reflect and Express

The whale was chosen as a symbol of hope as in some cultures, whales are treated with great respect and they often symbolise compassion and solitude. Being one of the oldest marine giants to have experienced and survived some of the world’s harshest historical events, they also imbue the virtues of wisdom and spirituality. These, we hope, will be some of the learning points that the students and visitors can take away while appreciating

the art installation. Drawing a parallel between the

journeys of survival of the whale to the present pandemic is relevant to serve as a reminder to us on the indestructible spirit of resilience. Other universal and practical messages can also be conveyed, such as rising above obstacles and challenges as well as confronting fear head on. These traits show the courage that one can develop and instil in one’s heart.

This lesson unit is currently an ongoing project. There will be peer assessment of students’ completed face mask designs. Students will be invited to share with the class their evaluation of how their work brings across their experiences of living through these uncertain times and what they learnt from the process while creating this work. Their peers will also be invited to respond to the artwork they created. This creates a space for students to remain open to continuous learning

as they hear from and share with one another. We hope to give students this avenue to vocalise their thoughts and experiences and learn to listen empathetically.

Additionally, as we would like to express the artwork in the display form of a whale, we wish to have the school community see how the display can add layers of meaning and continue to use this symbolic artwork and installation as a way to acknowledge the challenges and spirit of our times.

Mask designs by Secondary 2 cohort.

(Collection as of T3W5)

In the spirit of creating, imagining and innovating, at Stage Four, the students illustrated their final idea to convey their personal take on the theme ‘Heroes in Crisis’. Students then

rendered their drawings before folding them into face masks. A tutorial video was created for the students to follow the instructions accordingly.

26 27

sTo ies Alive!

Pushpalatha KrishnanHOD Aesthetics / D&T / NFS / NE

Jasmine NgoArt Teacher

Yoe Gek LiArt Teacher

Nurfarha Abdul RaufArt AED

Evergreen Secondary School

These are remarks commonly heard during an art lesson. These students tend to shy away or hide their work from their peers and teachers.

“Teacher, I cannot draw! I am not good at Art! Art is so difficult!”

Embarking on Full Subject-Based Banding (FSBB) has created a more heterogeneous classroom setting with a spectrum of students with different strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes, attitudes and understanding towards art. sTo ies Alive! aims to reach out to every student regardless of their starting point and empower them to create. The curriculum aims to pique students’ interest in art, and encourage them to explore and take risks. We strongly believe that every individual in the class can contribute ideas, offer constructive feedback through critique, make art together and reflect on their learning as a community. Through this, we want to build self-confidence and self-efficacy in each student in this learning community.

What is sTo ies Alive! About?An ICT-enhanced differentiated approach, the 2-year lower secondary art curriculum empowers students to tell their stories through art. The strengths-based curriculum is designed to facilitate voice and choice and tap on the students’ diverse talents. This approach allows every student to experience success that is based on their own strengths.

Accessible tasks such as mobile-phone photography and critique on design-elements allow students to access art at their own pace, regardless of starting points. A series of Padlet-facilitated lessons then hone and develop students’ artistic interpretations of the world. Students apply these newly-gained skills to bring their perspectives / narrative / story to ‘life’ as a 2D / 3D paper relief or 3D book art sculpture.

Student’s lesson progression outcomes.

1. Photography & discussion through Padlet.

2. Preparatory Studies: Visualising PODF in 3D using found materials.

3. Sketching story / event idea.

4. Creation.

28 29

How Was sTo ies Alive! Enacted in the Art Classrooms?

Secondary One Project BriefIn this project, you are given the task to visually transform paper and other found objects, that you choose to explore on, into a 3D paper relief sculpture based on an event / place / phenomenon / emotion / person of your choice. Your 3D artwork should be guided by the principles of design in the overall compositional arrangement—Balance, Contrast, Emphasis, Rhythm, Movement, Proximity, Proportion and Harmony.

Observe your surrounding and choose a specific site/ subject to frame your composition. Capture images with the iPads on the followings—Balance, Contrast, Emphasis, Rhythm, Movement, Proximity, Proportion and Harmony.

Post your photo on Padlet using this format: name_class_description of imagee.g. Ben Ong_1 Chr_Contrasting colours between the pot and the plants

Think & Discuss: What do you observe in the image? Can you identify the Principles of Design Elements? What are they?

Develop your ideas using paper or other materials to show the Principles of Design Elements on an A3 paper / board. You can present your development in a creative manner of your choice.

Think & Discuss: What is the best way I could present each element using paper? What ideas can I choose from my photos (@ Stage 1)?

Think of an event / place / phenomenon / emotion / person that you want to share through your 3D sculpture story. Sketch out your story. Translate your ideas learn / experimented @ Stage 2 to create your story.

Think & Discuss: What do I want to tell / share with my friends through my artwork—A story about my community, my friends, family or something that is happening around us? How can I best represent my story with various materials and techniques?

What is my story? Is there a message in your story that you want to share? What are the materials? What is exciting about my work? What I like / do not like about my work? What were problems I faced in doing my artwork and what did I do to overcome these problems. How / what can I do better?

Stage ❶: Observe

Stage ❷: Develop

Stage ❸: Create Your 3D Paper Sculpture Story

Stage ❹: Presentation

30 31

If you were the protagonist, how would you feel in this scenario / situation? How can we enhance the suggestion of ‘experience / emotions’ by adjusting the visual setting? E.g., can we vary the height or flaps and rolls of the waves more? Can we extend the flaps?

❷

Stage One saw a facilitation of discussions through Padlet. That deepened the students’ analysis and allowed peer critique and comments. At Stage Two, students supplemented their initial submissions and made improvements based on the feedback. Stage Three was crafted based on Tomlinson’s criteria for Respectful Tasks. This included encouraging a spectrum of outcomes through equally engaging tasks that considered students’ voice and choice.

Secondary Two Project BriefCreate a book art sculpture to depict your favourite story by showing the protagonist, setting and experience that extend from the book/pages with at least 3 different 3D paper manipulation techniques.

Identify the protagonist. E.g., the whale or the sailor? How do you infer it? Does scale plays a part in the identification of protagonist? How can we make the protagonist stand out more? What suggestions do you have?

Does it have to look like a book? How is this made? Pick up a technique from your friends’ works that you would want to try to enhance your works. What were the 2D elements that were built on? Is it part of the story? How does it extend to the 3D techniques?

❶

❸

In Secondary Two, students explored narratives/stories of their choice, distilling concise interpretations. Interdisciplinary connections were encouraged. Teachers continued to

facilitate discussions and peer critique on Padlet. After improvements to their initial design, students created their 3D book art sculpture.

Preparatory studies.

3D paper sculptures.

• •• •House of Leaves Student challenged herself to work from a physical book. She painstakingly folded the pages and the black parts that showed through the folds were discovered accidentally.

• •• •Tree House Dreams Student tried different wires and winding techniques to test how it would hold the structure up and created the different structures before assembling them.

• •• •Botany This is another work that challenged the confines of a book form. One of the challenges faced was the precision of folds, working on the different alignments and in the positioning of elements.

• •• •Moby Dick Student opted for a more dramatic effect by playing with scale and proportion and made the choice to only show the tail. One of the challenges was cutting the circles neatly out of the book.

32 33

Through skilful lesson facilitation, we observe a significant number of students incorporating skills and knowledge from other disciplines (e.g. mechanisms from D&T and topics from Geography).

Our Takeaways

Compared to former Art teaching strategies, the school’s new art curriculum sTo ies Alive! incorporating blended learning:

sTo ies Alive! engages students in the learning of Art with a contemporary student-centric approach, allowing students of different ability-levels to experience success, regardless of starting point. This is crucial in a mixed-stream FSBB art classroom. Students were observed to be intensely engaged in creating. Feedback from students’ post-lessons was very encouraging.

They felt a sense of empowerment and ownership as they were given the opportunity to work through challenges by themselves with guidance from the teachers. We are also elated that many shared they developed a passion for art through the learning experiences offered by the sTo ies Alive! curriculum.

1. Removes the pen / pencil / paper entry-barrier and bringing our digital natives onboard with a digital bridge via photo-taking.

2. Integrates technology by using Padlet as an e-gallery, online repository and discussion board. Beyond familiarisation with e-collaboration platforms, teachers could also guide students in online discussion etiquette.

3. Empowers students to explore alternative forms of artistic expressions, drawing inspiration from their peers’ submissions and critique, to create their final artefact.

4. Provides a flexible student-centered learning experience created for students to have the freedom of choice and voice, to explore and experiment with original ideas.

5. Is interdisciplinary in nature. This allowed students to see interconnectedness in the knowledge and skills they learn in other subjects or in their environment.

6. Leverages on e-portfolios via SLS for all Secondary 1 and 2 students to chart their learning progress in art and archive their draft works for future reference.

7. Deepens teachers’ understanding in lesson design to support diverse learners. Additionally, teachers learnt new ideas and skills in art making from the young artists’ sharing and feedback.

Secondary 1

Secondary 2

• •Infusing electronics learnt in D&T lessons.

• •Story on deforestation learnt in Geography lessons.

Stories on ‘My Aspirations’ learnt in Language / Literature lessons.

34 35

Ask Me About My Work!

As art teachers, we have always encouraged students’ voices in the classroom. In the revised Primary Art Syllabus, one of the six key elements of Artistic Processes is “Presentation” and one of the Core Learning Experiences is “Exhibition”, which can start with the presentation of artworks in the classroom.

How many of us have found the presentation segment of an art module to be stressful for our students? Students tend to freeze up in front of the class, and not know what to say about their work despite being given guiding questions. The other students in the audience might also feel bored from a lack of engagement.

Some common worries student

presenters may have are, “What if my classmates laugh at my work?” “What if they think my work is ugly?” “What if I said something wrong?”

Our students have always enjoyed working together with their peers making art. So why do presentations feel like a task they have to battle alone?

Also, in this unique time where social distancing is the norm, the usual forms of collaboration involving physical interactions has become limited. Since collaboration amongst peers is the very key in developing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills in our students, we should therefore safeguard the development of SEL for our students through vibrant sharing sessions.

MethodologyCreating sharing sessions is easily achieved with a lively subject like art. “Ask Me About My Work!” is a technique that teachers can employ in their classes—no tools are required. The process is simple:

↘ A student first volunteers to present his artwork to the class. ↘ He starts by showing them his work, and does not say

anything about it. ↘ His peers look at his work, and think of a question they

would like to ask about the artwork. ↘ The presenter can then pick three questions from the

floor to answer. ↘ The presenter can add on any other comments about

his own artwork at the end. ↘ This cycle repeats with the next student!

Primary 4 Class: Students have many questions to ask the presenter about her artwork.

ObservationsWhen I first tried this technique, I was worried that the students would not know what to ask, or that the presenter would be too afraid to answer the questions. However, I was pleasantly surprised when students were eager to volunteer to share their work and answer questions from their peers, compared to when they were told to simply talk about their own artwork. In addition, the students were very engaged thinking about questions to ask the presenter. Furthermore, the students came up with questions that did not even cross my mind. They

noticed the tiniest details about their peer’s work and it made me realise how many fruitful discussions we must have missed when we simply got students to talk about their own work.

One thing from this presentation style that delighted me was the fact that even the shy and quiet students were willing to come up to the front of the class to answer questions from their classmates. The students were also excited when the end of term came around and it was time for another round of presentations!

Silvia Lim Si QiArt Teacher

Qifa Primary School

36 37

Students’ Thoughts and Learning Objectives

My Learning

I was curious about why the students enjoyed this form of presentation and I asked some of them about it. I uncovered two main reasons through their feedback:

↘ The students were happy to know what their friends thought about their work.

↘ The students liked the process of asking the presenter why they drew/chose certain elements in their artwork.

As I observed the interaction between the presenters and the students asking questions, it brought me back to one of the reasons why I decided to teach art at the Primary level. I wanted to observe and preserve the ever imaginative thought processes of children that seem to fade away as they mature into adulthood. My students have shown me that their imagination has not

disappeared. Perhaps we thought it was not there, simply because we have stopped asking questions that showed how much we valued each other’s thoughts and ideas. And that is the beauty of teaching art—we learn more about art, and we learn to embrace the imagination of different minds in the process.

Primary 2 Class:Student explaining his artwork on why he chose yellow for the Merlion’s mane.

Fellow Art Teachers, Try This! ↘ Get students involved during art presentations by having

them take charge of the questions they can ask. ↘ Give students the freedom to talk about elements they

want to. They might not want to explain certain parts of their artwork, and that is fine.

↘ Guide students in the crafting of questions by using question starters.

↘ Always enjoy the process of presentation!

Primary 4 Class:Student picking out interesting details in peer’s artwork!

Primary 4 Class:Student anticipating questions from his peers.

The feedback was significant as it revealed something important about this structure of presentation—that the students value and care for their peers’ individual and collective thoughts. As students take turns to ask questions about each other’s works, they begin to pick up little skills from each other in the way they ask questions.

Instead of asking questions such as, “Why is your artwork like that?”, the students started to learn to pick out details and ask questions such as, “Why did you choose yellow and not another colour?”.

With questions that were more targeted on the different elements in their artwork, students also had the opportunity to talk about the inspiration or thoughts they had behind their choices in the art making.

If we take another look at MOE’s Learning Objectives (LOs) for art, this structure of presentation could help us touch on LOs from the “See” and “Express” domain such as, “Ask questions about what they see” and “Share their imagination, thoughts and feelings through art making”.

38 39

Celebrating Diversity in CCPS

Chloe TanSenior Teacher (Art)

Canossa Catholic Primary School

At the heart of the Canossian education is our satellite partnership with Canossian School (CS) where we purposefully assimilate children with hearing loss into our curriculum and activities. The unique demographic we enjoy therefore makes inclusive art education a perfect fit for our school.

Why is creating an inclusive art learning environment important to you?Art is a subject that encourages freedom of expression and diversity. The openness of the subject makes the introduction of an inclusive education ideal, where every child is enabled and empowered to be confident in expressing his or her own voice throughout the art making process.

Working for the past 7 years in CCPS with a diverse group of students, some of whom have hearing loss and some of whom have special abilities, has taught me that every child possesses

in them a talent and unique strength waiting to be uncovered. Creating an inclusive art learning environment at the primary education level is close to my heart as it lays the groundwork for our children to grow and develop into socially accepting and responsible citizens of the future. I hope that through the diverse art experiences we provide in our art education, our children can be given the opportunity to grow up to become socially inclusive and open-minded citizens of the world.

40 41

How are teachers / students supporting one another during this period (during HBL, school reopening etc.)?While the transition to home-based learning was a steep learning curve, the deep sense of community in my school prompted teachers from across departments and levels to come together to share ideas and good practices to support one another. A teacher from the mathematics department shared how she used QuickTime player to record audio and video to create online lessons that were more relatable and personal for our children while another shared how she introduced Kahoot into the SLS platform to make it more engaging for them.

We are all grateful to be back in school. Since the reopening, the

various departments have come together to create optional Zoom enrichment sessions to involve our children in academic and art related explorations after school. For the aesthetics department, we have since introduced virtual choir as well as weekly digital art lessons via Zoom to introduce our children to ICT art making platforms such as Microsoft Paint, iPad sketch tool and Google Keep. I encourage everyone reading this article to take the leap of faith, to try something different from your usual routines or to speak to a friend at work to explore starting a mini creative project that celebrates diversity for your school during this very unique time!

How might art teachers create a classroom culture where students show care and concern for one another? Children’s art making journey is a socially engaging process. A positive and supportive classroom atmosphere can promote conversations and interaction among peers. When engagement becomes a classroom norm, children will subconsciously become more accommodating, proactive and will also learn to keep a lookout for one another. In CCPS, we adopted a school-wide culture on the use of cooperative learning strategies in our classrooms. The use of cooperative learning structures has provided a platform that encourages conversations and collaboration among children. As cooperative learning is implemented across subjects and levels, integration has gradually become a norm for children.

Teachers are also role models to our children. Our tone of speech, thoughts and deeds are often under the scrutiny of the children we interact with. I find it emotionally helpful as a teacher

to look beyond differences and instead focus on establishing possibilities for our children to use art as a medium to safely build up their self-confidence and self-efficacy at their own pace. I used to and still occasionally find myself feeling a sense of defeat when lessons and children’s artwork did not turn out the way I expected them to be. However, it is important for me to recognise that there is a limit to my scope of control. I find that when I am optimistic, I allow myself to become more available to my children and the whole classroom environment including lesson delivery also becomes more positive and effective. The process of discovery and growth is the core of art education. It is therefore important for us to be flexible and willing to adapt and adjust our art curriculum, lesson plans and pace according to the diversity and needs of the classes.

Growing a Community of Artists in

Changing Times

Re-Imagining Art Education for Students with Special Needs

The art room has always been a special place in our school. My students associate it with play, discovery, and making a joyful mess. As for me, it is a space for them to learn to trust their own ideas, to grow in their courage to experiment and learn from mistakes, and to discover that they are artists in their own right.

The Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN) Tanglin School

caters to secondary school students with Mild Intellectual Disability. A number of our students also have co-occurring conditions, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down Syndrome. Here, we recognise their innate strengths, celebrate their unique perspectives, and affirm their capacity for growth. My role is to support my students in both academics and social-emotional development.

Karen ZainalLiteracy and Art Teacher

APSN Tanglin School

A class of Secondary 2 artists showing off their first still life paintings.

42 43

Pre-COVID-19: The ‘Old’ NormalEach year, all Secondary 1 and 2 students participate in one form of visual art and one form of performing arts. For example, a Secondary 1 student might be enrolled in Art in Semester 1 and Ukulele in Semester 2, while another student might be participating in Cantabile in Semester 1 followed by Stop-Motion Animation in Semester 2. They would then explore different arts modules the following year.

In the old normal, I would see a mixed group of 10 to 20 students from various classes at a time. The art

room is structured into four “islands”, each with 2 to 5 student-artists. That was where students collaborated to create group art, executed independent creations, and talked about their work. Each art unit is designed to incrementally expose students to various visual qualities, referencing the work of artists, and working with different mediums and techniques. In the process, we built a community of artists, cultivating skills in communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration.

A group of beginning artists from Secondary 1 exploring lines in 2D and 3D through collaborative art.

Circuit Breaker: Breaking the MouldWhen the COVID-19 pandemic took over in early April, we saw an opportunity to think about how to tap on visual art to enhance our students’ well-being at home, keeping in mind foreseeable distress in response to disrupted routines. However, many students lacked the confidence to initiate their own art making, and always benefited from thoughtfully structured activities. We asked ourselves: instead of designing art experiences that can only be accessed in the art room, how might we empower our students to become more self-directed artists?

Teacher Aide Ms Samantha Koh and I teamed up to create a booklet containing 20 creative art prompts divided into 4 categories: About Me, My Surroundings, My Singapore, and The World & Me. This progression was designed to scaffold students’ creative exploration—they began from looking inwards then branching further outwards in search of inspiration. Each category came with an introductory video to jumpstart students’ imagination and creative inquiry, and to provide tips for online research.

Ms I. G. Tatham, Art Therapist, about her internship at APSN Tanglin School

“I witnessed and was humbled by the power of the art making process and its impact on the students. In an environment that was safe and free of judgement, their creativity was unleashed—enabling and facilitating deep and meaningful non-verbal communication, smiles of achievement, and visible signs of enhanced self-esteem and confidence.”

❶ TS Artventure PassportTS Artventure Passport: A take-home booklet of art prompts.

• •Artists’ Conference:Students sharing and discussing their work at the end of the lesson.

• •14-year-old Dillion communicating his self-belief though his Pop Art-inspired self-portrait.

44 45

Student Responses to…About Me

• • Drawing by Beatrice (Secondary 4).

• • Digital Collage by Bryan (Secondary 2) and his parent.

My Singapore

Drawings by Jin Jie (Secondary 3).

My Surroundings

• • Drawing by Jordan (Secondary 3).

• • Painting by Daren (Secondary 4).

The World and Me

• • Drawing by Min Hoe (Secondary 1) and his sister.

• • Painting by Shi Rui (Secondary 2).

❷ Virtual Art Jam

We also launched a 90-minute “Live Art Jamming” session via Zoom and invited students, parents, and siblings to make art along with staff. Focused on the theme of “Making Everyday Things Come Alive”, I introduced the 91 online participants to two art prompts, each leading to independent art making and

concluding with a time of sharing. Even the usually-shy students volunteered to showcase their creations, with 90 other people listening intently! Several parents requested for more virtual art jams, saying that their children enjoyed making art and connecting with their teachers and friends.

Ms Samantha Koh, Teacher Aide

“These Circuit Breaker activities show students … that they can bring the skills and interests they picked up in school to the comfort of their own homes. Creative ideas can be sparked when they pay more attention to everyday things. I’m excited to see how we will continue to work towards bringing art to all parts of our students’ lives.”

46 47

Prompt 1: What can you turn your hands into?

Prompt 2: What if the things at home could speak to you?

Post-Circuit Breaker: The ‘New’ NormalWith new safe management measures, students had to remain in their homerooms with their classmates and Form Teachers instead of going to mixed-group, rotating arts modules. To show that the arts is not about activities in the art or music room, but the courage and creativity they bring wherever they go, music teacher Ms Rena Ng and I joined forces to pilot a

new Art-and-Music fusion programme that can be accessed from all classrooms, by all students and teachers regardless of their arts background. The weekly lesson e-packages facilitated by Form Teachers introduced students to elements of both art and music, and activities that got them to tap into both art forms simultaneously.

For the first lesson, we set out to show students that everyone can create original art. After learning about Jackson Pollock’s “action painting” and identifying differences in music tempo, students created three abstract pieces by allowing their colour pencils to “dance” to three contrasting pieces of music: Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No.1, Pharrell Williams’ Happy, and the theme song from Disney / Pixar’s Up.

TS Artventure Passport 2: A booklet to scaffold and catalogue students’ explorations in class.

Demo video screen grabs:

• • Drawing lines while following changes in music tempo.

• • Drawing shapes in sizes varying in size as music dynamics change.

Ms Sukanya Elangovan, Form Teacher (Numeracy)

“When I found out I was going to facilitate the art lessons for my class I was initially apprehensive. However, as the weeks passed, the comprehensive teaching resources provided have made me become more confident in facilitating the sessions. I’m glad for this opportunity because it’s been interesting to understand my students’ thoughts and feelings through their artwork! This experience has also reminded me that each student is special in their own way.”

48 49

The art room remains a special place in our school, and we look forward to re-inhabiting it. But in the meantime, our school community is busy discovering the magic of the arts beyond those walls.

Our new normal: Bringing art-ventures into the classroom.

Kenny’s confident strokes and bold colour choices.

Fostering Inclusion Through the Arts

Who Are We?Superhero Me is a non-profit inclusive arts movement that arms children who have special needs with creative confidence through collaboration and mentorship opportunities. We also serve as a social mixing platform, with a focus on inclusive programming and training, creative advocacy and strategic partnerships.

We are an agile community with diverse backgrounds and skill sets, functioning as a network of creatives, producers and facilitators who assemble according to project requirements.

Check out what we do! @superheromeSG

Joyce TeoCreative Producer

Jean LooCo-Founder

Superhero Me

“I can finally draw!” said Secondary 2 student Kenny at the end of that lesson. For him and many others, a new chapter has just begun!

50 51

Through art-facilitated experiences, we seed ideas about differences, empathy and resilience. In our signature three-day inclusive arts camps, children of different abilities work in teams to explore new art forms and co-creation.

How We Do Inclusion

There is Always a Story

Inclusion at Superhero Me is a conscious effort by every individual in the room to support each child in the room to Participate, Achieve and Belong. In our practice, we’ve realised that skills to facilitate inclusion are not limited to those who are trained to work with children with special needs. Here’s how we do it:

There is always a story to guide the child’s experience, starting with positive first impressions of each other. Stories frame expectations we have of the children and encourage them to explore new perspectives. For example, are we going to work as a team to help this lost friend return home, or shall we bake the world’s tallest cardboard cake together? Art then becomes a tool enabling children to work together towards this goal.

Who’s Coming to Dinner? was held at Objectifs—Centre for Photography and Film in 2017. Gatherings are at the heart of this art kitchen inspired by children from Kindle Garden, Singapore’s first inclusive preschool.

Be Open to All Forms of Communication

Give participants options as choice is a form of empowerment. In our programmes, we prefer to use different artforms simultaneously to support the key art activity, so a craft session might involve some degree of music and movement or even drama to spark enquiry.

Ensure Your Space and Tools are Accessible

For example, if you have children who are wheelchair users, sit on chairs instead of the floor to ensure all children see eye-to-eye. Visually demarcate the space with tape and provide clear instructions to help children with autism understand boundaries. Offer a paint roller if a brush is too small for gripping. Offer blu-tack if glue is too hard to squeeze. Designing an experience for children with special needs usually benefits everyone in the room, because you are scaffolding and defining success in more than one way.

Creative Mess is Encouraged but Some Predictability is a MustUse visual schedules and check off after each activity. Make it simple, yet fun and humorous. Try GIFS, memes and Spotify. Presentation matters.

Focus the Energy in the Room

Have one main voice and others to banter and bounce off energy.❶ Adults in the room should model a language of possibility and shared purpose, while being comfortable with the children with special needs present.

❶ In a classroom context where the teacher is the only leading voice, consider regulating energy levels with music and punctuating craft activities with movement breaks. We always warm up with an energizer game and cool-down with a breathing exercise.

52 53

Pivoting from Offline to OnlineHow can we support children with special needs and their families in COVID-19 times where we are unable to run physical programmes that have children from different schools attending the classes together? This question drove our work this season and pushed us to new ways of creative engagement.

Bouncing back from the cancellation of our annual inclusive arts festival, we had to quickly learn new tools of the trade like Zoom and

pivot our efforts towards digital content creation and programming.

In response to COVID-19, we embarked on a project “Let’s Fight COVID-19!” to help children and adults with special needs understand COVID-19. The project includes a series of videos in three languages, and a slideshow with social stories tailored for those with autism, intentionally simplified to match their cognitive levels.This has been viewed more than 50,000 times and used by schools across Singapore.

View the content at: https://superherome.sg/covid19After the circuit breaker was announced, we put together HOLIYAY AT HOME, a weekly programme comprising storytelling and exercise on Tuesdays, craft-making to promote positive social-emotional skills on Wednesdays and a performance series to nurture art appreciation on Fridays.

A sample week of programme for HOLIYAY AT HOME. Each session was conducted over Zoom, led by an artist and facilitated by up to three Superhero Me captains.

We busied ourselves designing animated Google Slides along art activities that require only basic stationery, selecting suitable music to set the mood and rehearsing artist-captain interaction to bring up energy. Children became very excited when we “spotlighted” their video.❸ While they may not have been directly interacting with each other, co-creating in a shared digital space and acknowledging the presence of others and self was enough.

Gallery view on Zoom of our HOLIYAY AT HOME participants. We scripted many junctures for children to take turns to show their work or unique dance pose and encouraged echoing as one way to acknowledge friends in a virtual room.

Using a green screen and animating pre-recorded footage are some ways to make the storytelling experience more immersive.

❷ We collect children’s profiles from parents or teachers beyond the diagnosis. For instance, likes / dislikes, meltdown triggers and best ways to calm down. Our facilitators’ personalities are also taken into account to match or balance the group’s energy level.

❸ Spotlight is a feature on Zoom which allows the meeting host to control whose video is seen.

Be the Bridge

Know enough about the children in advance to match the most suitable adult buddy to them and use that knowledge to form groups for interaction.❷ Facilitate conversations to find similarities and explain atypical behaviour whenever necessary, and wonder aloud if you are not sure too. For example, about a child who is either non-participative or destructive, you may say to the rest, “I think Carlos is not ready to join us yet or he doesn’t know how to, let’s give him some time or ask if he wants to help choose a colour.”

54 55

Harnessing the Potential of the ArtsInclusion is counter-intuitive because it is human tendency to relate to people whom we believe are similar to us. To reach out to someone not like us requires effort and practice.

We believe inclusion is not a destination, but a journey of self-awareness and aspiration in how we can uplift each other in the room. It will take time. At Superhero Me, we aim to kickstart this journey for the children we work with.This means focusing on developing a culture of facilitators, children, parents and

artists who understand that inclusion is not a one-man show, but a dedicated team effort.

The arts, with its emphasis on creative expression, offers fertile ground for fostering curiosity, and this precedes empathy. For children to learn how to include others with different needs, they will look to adults for guidance. There is plenty of opportunity for us as facilitators to embrace this role and ignite perspective-taking and respect for different ways of communication, and motivate engagement in the room.

A simple story of Wooly, illustrated by artist and art educator Tan Peiling, provided a narrative arc for the craft activities that followed.

First, we helped Wooly grow his fur back. Then, we created a spin wheel of encouraging words and actions to get ready for going back to school nearing the end of circuit breaker.

Impacting the Community with Art

Angelina ChiaSenior Teacher (Art)

Tampines North Primary School

In February, as the nation grappled with the pandemic and schools were abuzz with engaging students in adopting stringent hygiene routines to the catchy rap of the Soaper 5 heroes, I pondered how I could make art relevant during a time like this. I wanted a task that would communicate to my students the practical value of art. I wanted to demonstrate how art can also respond to the physical needs of a society in crisis. In addition, I wanted the students to participate in contributing to their community-at-large through their art making.

In my discussion with the students, the topic of the worldwide shortage of surgical masks came up. We got excited about the possibility of sewing reusable

masks for the healthcare workers as a gesture of appreciation. Since the senior Art Club members had prior experiences in sewing from a Scrapbook making and embroidery project, we were confident that we would be able to pull off this new endeavour.

Having no knowledge on masks sewing, I scoured the internet for information. I came across a seamstress through social media, contacted her for advice and she generously shared her knowledge on the type of cloths to buy, the other essential paraphernalia, places to buy the necessary items from and the most doable mask type for young students. To ease the students into the task, the cloth patterns were cut in advance with the support of the

56 57

As the objective of the project was to reach out to our school’s immediate macro community, I contacted the various healthcare organizations within the area. Tampines Polyclinic responded to our proposal. Since I only had about 30 students hand sewing the masks, we agreed that we would distribute the masks to a small segment of their 180 staff members. When I shared this plan with my Principal, Mrs Elan, she encouraged me to collaborate with the CCE team. With the support of the CCE team, the whole school was mobilized to write little notes of appreciation and encouragement. Teachers also contributed by putting together a care pack for the entire staff population at the Polyclinic. With the small CCA-led initiative taking shape into a whole school activity, the school was buzzing with excitement. Different groups of people were involved in different tasks to put together the TNPS Care Packs.

We had parent volunteers and teachers helping to pack, teachers collating the notes and arranging them into big Thank You poster-cards, teachers personalizing the bags with doodles and words of encouragement and gratitude. While scanning through the notes, I was especially impressed by the students’ awareness of the situation and touched by their candid expressions of gratitude for our healthcare workers.

When the packs were finally delivered, I heaved a sigh of relief. There were many moments of doubts when I saw the jittery stitches on the masks, and I had wondered if we could pull this off or if the end product would be good enough. The project’s success can be attributed to the students’ resilience, together with the commitment of partners such as Michelle, our parent volunteer, who pulled several all-nighters to tidy up the masks.

• •Students from Art Club putting together the masks for healthcare workers.

• •Students working together to help each other with the sewing.

school’s parent volunteer, Michelle. Having expert knowledge in sewing masks, Michelle was instrumental in helping us bring the project into fruition. She helped guide the students in sewing and tidying up the stitches.

I decided that we should sew a 3-ply mask. It was challenging right from the get-go. Students struggled with aligning the cloths and ensuring that their stitches were not too tight causing the cloths to fold. As they laboured over the stitches and knots, I was heartened to observe that there was not one complaint. Students were

focused on the fact that their labour of love would bring cheer to the tireless healthcare workers.

They were seen helping friends who were confused with the sequence of the stitches, patiently guiding them to get it right. They encouraged each other and especially me, when the fear of not be able to fulfil the task loomed over my head. When we encountered problems with the structure of the mask, I was delighted to see the older students taking ownership to explore probable solutions instead of relying on the adults for help.

• •Masks completed for packing into the TNPS Care Pack.

• • Teachers arranging the notes into poster-cards for the healthcare workers.

58 59

(From left) Dr Paul Goh, Director for Polyclinics Development, Staff and Clinic Director of Tampines Polyclinic receiving the TNPS Care Pack from Ms Kezia Ler (HOD, CCE) with the CCE team including Mrs Angelina Chia (ST, Art).

Thank you notes from staff members from Tampines Polyclinic.

A while ago, we received thank you notes from the staff members of the polyclinic. It was heartwarming to know that our small gestures “bring energy each day” to those in our community. For the students, the takeaway was that they are a part of a bigger community and they can do their part, no matter how small, to positively impact those around them. When I asked a student how she felt when working on the mask, she responded, “It was very difficult but I think it must be even more difficult for the healthcare workers to work with

people infected with the virus. I hope my mask will tell them that I care and appreciate them.”

There is a quote—it takes a village to raise a child, and after this episode, I would say it also takes a village to actualize and extend an idea. Without the giving and sharing of time, knowledge, expertise and resources from the larger community, it would have been a much steeper learning curve for both teachers and students. I am thankful for the selflessness of many individuals who pitched in to make this project a success.

Making Deep Connections in the New Norm

— is a question that I ask myself every now and then so that I never lose sight of the vision that we have as a fraternity. When the COVID-19 pandemic turned our once familiar world upside down within a span of just a few months, we faced the grand challenge of re-imagining education, including what

and how our children learn. How do we continue to lead, care and inspire amidst the loss of human interaction? I believe social distancing does not necessarily equate to isolation, it is about taking time to foster deep connections with others in novel ways.

The Art team at CHIJ OLN. From left: Miss Wendy Wong, Mdm Safikha, Mrs Sharon Lai, Mdm Ilyana and Miss Marilyn Chan (not pictured).

“What do we need to do in order to lead, care and inspire?”

Nur Ilyana Binte Mohamed AnwarSubject Head (Art)

CHIJ Our Lady of the Nativity

60 61

Showing care and doing our part for the community is a large part of our mission as a school and personally, I have always believed that it is not about monumental gestures but simple small actions or even random acts of kindness that would make a meaningful difference to others. During one of our daily chats during the Circuit Breaker period, my colleague, Sharon, shared with me on how she created her own

WhatsApp stickers using the mobile application Stickerly. Thanks to her sharing, I was inspired to design a series of encouragement stickers that all my colleagues could use when marking digital worksheets as well as in the virtual interactions with their students. Although it was time-consuming and the countless hours spent in front of the screen designing them took quite a toll on my eyes and neck, to see how

If there is one thing that I have learnt about leadership, it is in the importance of building relationships. In many of his podcasts and interviews, Simon Sinek would always remind us that “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.” and this is something that truly resonates with me. As the SH Art at CHIJ Our Lady of the Nativity, I lead a team of art teachers with whom I work very closely with to develop various art related programmes in our school. When the reality of HBL dawned upon me, I was also concerned if I would still be able to support and develop my team members whilst working remotely. Fortunately, the worries were short-lived because even though we were physically isolated, the

availability of technology and the internet ensured that we were able to stay connected; allowing the camaraderie and our team dynamics to come through. Besides developing lessons and monitoring student progress together, we also had frequent conversations about how we could make the experience of learning Art from home, a more vibrant and engaging one. Some ideas worked, some ideas didn’t, some ideas were trashed by the team almost as soon as they were suggested. But it was through this active discussion and exploration of different ideas that we were able to develop OLN Art Bytes ❶ as an additional resource that students could access to keep them engaged during the weekends stuck at home.

Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, 2019.

Pablo Picasso, artist.

“The most important thing is to create.”“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

❶ View our Art website at https://www.olnartsavenue.com/

Certain parts of this website is accessible only via a parent/student account.

The website which I created using Wix is like a buffet of art activity videos, games and resources specially created and curated by the art teachers. We also used social media platforms such as YouTube and Instagram to publish

videos and showcase students’ artworks. Even though it is a relatively small community, we will continue to engage and inspire our stakeholders and progressively build a bigger network.

62 63

Back at work with the new norm!

the best way for me to find the resources on topics and discussions that I was interested in. I enjoyed having an entire community who could help with the questions I had as well as being able to connect with like-minded people. Because of the sense of belonging I developed within the online communities, when the opportunity

to conduct a concurrent session at the virtual EdCamp ❹ at SgLDC came about, I thought nothing of putting my name down for it as a presenter. Although I had concerns about the short time frame to put a sharing together, I am thankful that I decided to go for it as I was able to gather some feedback which is an essential

much others appreciated the stickers made it all worthwhile. I also saw it as an opportunity to practice my craft and the fact that it could bring joy to others was a definite bonus.

Sometime midway through the Circuit Breaker period, I also read about the oscar@sg fund on my Newsfeed and thought it was a wonderful opportunity for the team to come together to do something for the community. Because as a department we believe that Art can make a difference in people’s lives, the team

needed no persuasion to come on board. I drafted a proposal for heARTs of Hope which aims to bring the joy of art making to selected beneficiaries. The project will be launched in August this year. When school finally reopened in June, it was the same belief that led us to launch Threads That Bind, a project where we engaged our P6 students to sew ear savers for the entire school and community. Amazing things really do happen when passion meets purpose.

John Lennon once said, “A dream you dream alone is just a dream. A dream you dream together is a reality.” In times of crisis, I believe it is more important than ever to rise as a community so that we can rely on one another for solidarity, support, guidance and most importantly, inspiration. With social distancing measures in place, online communities start to take centre stage in our lives.

The spirit of the education fraternity that I saw through online communities such as SgLDC ❷ and a|edge ❸ was a great source of inspiration for me. To see teachers sharing ideas and helping one another with solutions to their problems made me feel really proud to be part of such an amazing fraternity. It was a platform where I could start a conversation and was

❷ The Singapore Learning Designers Circle (SgLDC) is a Facebook group by ETD, for MOE Educators in Singapore.

❸ Art Educators’ Developmental & Generative Explorations (a|edge) is a Facebook group by STAR open to Art Educators in Singapore.

❹ EdCamp was organised as an online ‘unconference’ on 27 May where the participants are also the presenters.

component for my growth. So even though as a fraternity we were all physically apart, the presence and the support from these virtual communities enabled us to continue to inspire and be inspired, to learn and to grow.

The world post COVID-19 is going to be a very different one and in order for us to emerge stronger, I think it is important to remain curious and to keep on learning. We need to constantly ask questions and be open to new solutions. I feel that this is a critical moment for us to reflect and re-examine our way of life: how can we embrace change, work for change and be the change so that we can emerge out of this crisis with hope. And most importantly, we need to come together as a fraternity, a community and a nation to help and see each other through what is to come.

64 65

From My Art Room to Yours: Leading Together as an Art

Teacher Community

❶ Nominated by their Cluster Superintendents, Art STAR Champions are acknowledged for their instructional leadership, dedication and passion towards their subject disciplines. They will attend a range of customized workshops that will deepen their

understanding of student-centric strategies to nurture 21st century competencies, and also work with fellow Art STAR Champions to lead other teachers in their clusters and/or zones and advocate for the art fraternity.

Lisa ZhangArt Teacher

Springfield Secondary School

The STAR Champions programme ❶ deepens art teachers’ teaching and pedagogical leadership competencies, and nurture a teacher-led culture within the arts fraternity. In this article, 2 STAR champs, Lisa and Wei Ling, reflect on their recent experiences in the programme.

As a new STAR Champion, how has being a part of the STAR Champion group supported your growth as an art teacher?

These past two years of involvement with the STAR Champions fraternity has been an incredibly enriching experience. As a member of this fraternity, educators embark on a two-pronged approach to professional development by attending workshops while simultaneously working on collaborative action research projects

carried out in their own schools. Some key project areas of focus in 2019 include digital literacy in the Students’ Learning Space (SLS) platform, developing learning packages in response to effective pedagogical approaches and building teachers’ capacities in selected teaching areas.

My group mates and I collaborated and bonded over our shared enthusiasm and passion for Museum-Based Learning (MBL) and supported one another when we faced challenges and obstacles in implementing MBL in our schools. Over informal text messages and video-conference calls, we kept each other

abreast of the latest developments in our respective projects. One of the defining moments of the STAR Champion experience has been the cultivation of a collegiate professional development culture and a true sense of a ‘culture of care’ amongst art educators.

‘Mobile Learning’ Gallery Walk Booth

Planning documents for the implementation of a ‘Mobile Learning’ Lesson Unit and proposed Elegant Art Task.

Sample images from Mobile Learning Lesson Unit.

66 67

In particular, what is something positive that you have learnt about the art teaching fraternity during the HBL period?

In your opinion, how might teachers contribute to building a collaborative and caring art teaching fraternity?

Educators had a short runway to implement digital and technological learning solutions as full home-based learning (HBL) kicked in in April. During this period, educators faced uphill challenges, simultaneously learning new technologies and making informed decisions about how learning could take place over digital platforms. Educators had to manage student equity to digital learning and address the differentiated digital literacies of their students.

During this hour of need, many art educators and STAR Champions alike rallied to share effective teaching practices and successful implementation of digital learning in their own schools. Many of us shared short video clips and

workflows that plugged the gaps in digital learning, looking at free learning platforms such as SLS, Google Classroom, Kami Extension for Chrome, Seesaw Classroom Application and many other technological tools that allowed teachers to assess students’ works effectively. Educators also shared time-sensitive resources, such as plays, theatre productions and online museum resources with each other, increasing teacher capacity to build rich and meaningful digital lessons for our students. This good practice of open sharing within the fraternity fostered stronger bonds within the schools and helped educators to feel less alone during such trying times.

Early this year on 31st January 2020, I had the opportunity to attend and contribute to a sharing session hosted at Ngee Ann Secondary School. Art educators from various schools brought physical samples of ‘good’ works and several schools conducted an informal sharing on what pedagogical approaches had worked for their 2019 graduating batch of art students. The afternoon of light-hearted banter, open sharing of good practices and struggles

faced by educators, encapsulated the spirit of camaraderie and openness that I had come to associate with the art fraternity over the years. Such grassroots initiatives provide fertile ground for resource sharing and future collaboration efforts. My sincere hope is that we continue to engage in critical conversations and learn from one another in order to build the capacity of the art educator fraternity as a whole.

Sample images of Museum-Based Learning (MBL) Action Research carried out in participating schools.

The sharing session at Ngee Ann Secondary School on 31st January 2020, showcasing teacher presentation on good practices by various schools as well as samples of student work.

68 69

Tan Wei LingArt Teacher

Clementi Primary School

I feel humbled and grateful to be able to be part of the dynamic STAR Champions Group. The sharing of experiences from teachers of diverse backgrounds motivated me to enrich myself.

During the first PD session, we were asked to share a memorable art lesson. The energy was infectious. Nursidah from Opera Estate Primary School, shared on how she has

conducted a PQP (Praise, Question, Polish) session with her students using musical chairs, a fun way for students to receive feedback from at least two peers. When I adapted this activity with my students, I found they enjoyed it and took giving and receiving feedback seriously. I later shared this with teachers in my school’s art department.

I also remember casually sharing with Izyan from Greenridge Primary School, about the challenges I faced when conducting the museum-based learning programme. Even though it was the first time we met, she was generous in sharing how she has conducted the programme in her school and assured me that once a comprehensive plan is put in place, the teachers would come on board. As fate would have it, Izyan and I were put in the same group and the task assigned to us was to design a

museum-based learning programme! Although each of us eventually carried out the programme differently to cater to the different needs of our students, it was beneficial to have a group of experienced and passionate teachers to discuss and share ideas with.

My school had the privilege of having the social studies department coming onboard to collaborate with us. Subsequently, this learning from our museum approaches was shared with other teachers from our cluster.

During the HBL period, collaboration and sharing became even more important. We had to adapt rapidly to the volatile situation. We were able to tap on each other’s experiences and expertise. Sharing among teachers surfaced and pre-empted the problems and anxieties that parents and students might face.

Seeing how other teachers share and provide suggestions assured me that there is help and support available. Many teachers are more than willing to provide suggestions and share their resources.

Sharing on what we are doing in class allows us to receive feedback from peers on how to better our practices. It may also be a timely resource that our colleagues in other schools have been looking for. Very often, we may overlook that students in our school may be facing the same issue as students in other schools.

More importantly, the act of sharing enables others to bounce off and build on ideas and refine them. This increases our competency as teachers and more importantly benefits our students.

• •Having fun while the music played!

• •Seeking clarification on the feedback received.

Collaborating with our colleague in the Social Studies Department to conduct museum-based learning programme at the National Gallery Singapore.

• •Pre-museum visit activity.

• •Post-museum visit project.

70 71

An Artsy Relay

In April, a group of 11 teachers created and shared a fun video on the a|edge Facebook group, ❶ showing them “passing” a brush to each other alongside messages of encouragement for teachers who were in the thick of full Home-Based Learning.

Scan or click on this QR code to view their video shared on our a|edge facebook group!❷https://www.facebook.com/nursidah/videos/10221487181276309/

❶ Art Educators’ Developmental & Generative Explorations (a|edge) is a private Facebook group for art educators in Singapore to network and share ideas.

STAR Academy Officer Jess Chen caught up with 4 of the members of this group to find out more about their collaborative project that brought a smile to our faces!

Nursidah Binte Abdul Wahid Opera Estate Primary School

Norfaraidh Binte TalibShuqun Primary School

Suhaila BidinMayflower Primary School

Tan Wei LingClementi Primary School

72 73

Could you share more about how this group met?

So who or what inspired this video?

Sidah We are a group of 22 teachers from different schools who met during a 4-month Advanced Diploma course in 2015. Our course [was held] in NIE, where we saw one another every day over the four months and that was how we bonded with each other.

Suhaila One of my ex-colleagues was asking how come I was still in touch with the group. I think for a group to stay together for 5 or 6 years, it is indeed quite a long time.

Sidah We update each other about art and about each other’s schools. It is like a mini networking (group).

Faraidh It started with sharing of videos by other people that they did with TikTok, and Sidah suggested, ‘Come let’s do it’. Initially there was no response, then suddenly another person said, ‘Shall we use some art materials?’ Then there was discussion of whether we should use brushes or palette and it became a serious thing to video ourselves!

Sidah Amongst the 22 of us, we have our own strengths. I just had to ask one question and we had all these ideas coming back. We are also lucky that we have a IT savvy lady—Suhalia. She was the one who put the video together.

Suhaila To be honest I am actually not very IT savvy, and I don’t really make videos. I had to learn, and had fun while making something new.

What was the initial wish for the video?

Faraidh It was to spread positive vibes, because as a group, we want to encourage each other. Every time someone is stressed, there is always someone there to heal our hearts. During the Circuit Breaker, people were stressed out because there was a lot of work to do. We just hoped that for a moment, people would be reminded to take care of themselves and have fun too.

Wei Ling I think that the encouragement from each other helped a lot. I wanted to quietly opt out of the video, but Sidah actually took our attendance one by one! (Laughs)

Sidah We didn’t want to leave anyone out! I shared the video recently with my students. I used it to talk to them about teamwork and collaboration and how it will still work out even if you are not physically facing one another.

What would be some words of advice or encouragement that you want to give to other teachers?Sidah Initially before I knew this group of people, it was very hard and tiring for me to be an art teacher in the school. I felt that I was alone, because not everyone would understand what the art teachers are going through. After I knew them, and we networked with each other, I realised that when you open up and tap on each other’s skills and knowledge, the work is so much lighter. A very simple example would be the working on the rubrics for the LOs. ❸ Because we are like-minded in this small group, the way we explain things to each other, makes ideas more easily understood.

What was the process like?Suhaila Initially I didn't know that we would be getting that many entries, I thought it would be 5 or 6. But it was encouraging that the videos kept coming in. The sequence depended on where the brush fell. The idea was to take from left, and to throw it to the right. But when I got the videos it was all over the place! (Laughs)

Wei Ling We have no sense of direction! Suhaila But it was quite fun! Everyone put in the effort, so I did not mind editing it. The most challenging part was to make it meaningful—to add the positive comments that linked with the images as well. I was fortunate because Bi Yun, one of our members, called the day I was editing the video and we brainstormed for good captions together.

❸ Learning Outcomes from the Primary Art Syllabus.

74 75

Wei Ling Sometimes I can be distracted by the amount of work and it takes away the joy of teaching at times, so I find that with them I can always connect back to why I started teaching art in the first place. Sometimes just looking through what they post, helps me to realign myself and find the joy of teaching art again.

Faraidh Sometimes we just need affirmation from others. Am I doing the correct thing? Is there anything else to improve our work process? Sharing the information we learnt from each other with our HODs also assures them that we are well-informed.

Sidah To add on to that we also rant. We rant a lot! But we rant to the correct people. They are positive, they listen and give us solutions to our problems.

Wei Ling And it can be from little things like where to get materials, to larger things like how to carry out the lessons, or the rubrics. There is a lot of support and ideas and like what Sidah says, you really need to rant to the right people. Instead of adding on to the negativity, we find a solution to our problems. I think we are very solution-driven and goal-oriented!

Suhaila When we have a very good support group, we must not be afraid to ask even silly questions. Recently I was asking them, ‘Where do I get bottle caps?’ There were a lot of answers. Eventually I got my own answers but they were very quick with responding—oh I did this before with my school, you can get this from here and so on. I’m actually using our conversations to brainstorm.

Sidah (Laughs) Oh I do that a lot!Faraidh I might not use their ideas, but I build on their solutions. During the SYF period our phones are always very active. We remind each other of deadlines.

Wei Ling This group is very generous with their knowledge. We don’t hold back, we share everything.

Sidah Especially at the end of the year, we do not need to prompt each other. Automatically, all the pictures will come in.

Faraidh We are very good at stressing each other out. Like wow your school is doing that?! Just looking at what they send will spur us to think, “Oh no what will be the next project?” (Laughs)

#SGartchersMAKE

As the Circuit Breaker kicked in, STAR launched three micro online workshops conducted weekly via Zoom, to create wellness by connecting our art teachers through three 30-minute artist-led workshops. Three artist-educators, Ezzam Rahman, Dahlia Osman and David Chan gamely took on the challenge of introducing our art teachers to art making approaches that could be done using materials found in our homes.

During Ezzam’s session, we used household objects and applied them to our bodies through playful actions that elicited physical sensations. The actions evoked symbolic rituals and turned us into sculptural forms.

STAR

76 77

We were heartened to not only ‘see’ art teachers again, but also had the pleasure of seeing some faces reappearing week after week! In this article, four teachers share their experience of attending these workshops.

David demonstrated how the humble paper bag from our homes could be taken apart and refashioned to take on sculptural forms.

Dahlia opened us up to the simple and poetic act of drawing to externalize our recent experiences and thoughts from the Circuit Breaker.

Maslina Mohamad Jalani Art Teacher

Kranji Secondary School

When the Circuit Breaker was announced, many of us who considered ourselves not so tech-savvy, may have felt a sense of anxiety. Are we ready to teach differently using online platforms? How could our students feel our presence? How could learning still be optimised? I started anticipating two possibilities. Those who were self-directed would be able to remain interested even in an isolation chamber whereas the social butterflies could wither due to the social distancing. With the sheer number of technological tools and websites, how could I teach art other than using the Student Learning Space (SLS)? STAR’s initiative to conduct Ezzam’s and Dahlia’s Stay Home Make Art Together sessions was timely. The

two artists demonstrated that it was possible to conduct synchronous learning using technology through live hands-on demonstrations. The session with Ezzam pushed me to participate beyond my comfort zone. Using things that we could find in our homes, with items such as clothes pegs, plastic bags, bowls and spoons, he challenged the participants to transform our human form with additional attachments to our bodies. The online activities not only inspired us on how we could conduct our lessons, it also gave us a sense of solidarity- we are not alone in this journey to pave the way to a new frontier of teaching and learning with technology.

Example of using two devices to capture the feed simultaneously for demonstrations.

78 79

Maefrize Lim Art Teacher

Anderson Primary School

Did you feel overwhelmed juggling home and work during the Circuit Breaker? I found that it was not easy to cope especially when we were confined at home managing the preparation of lessons, especially

if there were young children at home to care for as well. I became unwell and was very stressed out until I saw STAR’s post in a|edge Facebook group for the weekly 30 minute artist-led art making sessions.

It was a wakeup call that reminded me that art can connect, lift and give hope. It was a rare opportunity to connect with artists and like-minded teacher-artists who were going through this same period with me. Moreover, I could share the experience with my own children at the same time. I enjoyed

Dahlia’s caricature session and had fun watching my children clip clothes pegs on their ears and faces during Ezzam’s performative art session. These art sessions miraculously brought light to the stay home experience. I am indeed grateful that STAR has initiated this.

Maefrize’s drawing to capture her experience during HBL.

Maefrize and her children replicating actions explored during Ezzam’s session.

Ng Kuan ShinArt Teacher

Hai Sing Catholic School

I signed up for these online art making sessions to pick up the different methods of facilitation used by the workshop facilitators. I believe there must be some new methodologies to be learnt using teleconferencing.

Every session had its learning points. The first facilitation by Ezzam Rahman was highly interactive and in my opinion, it managed to place the idea of “Performance Art” in the right place. I think it would be stimulating and impactful to see performance art via live teleconferencing with all audience as equal participants. The facilitation was refreshing.

The second facilitation by Dahlia forced me to think about how one

could improve setting up a home environment that allowed the instructor’s physical involvement, so as to enhance art making. I liked how Dahlia used a marker to mark the lines on her own hand to explain to us the anatomy of a hand.

Lastly the third facilitation by David who explored recycling a material from the home (paper bags) to form process “sketch” or create “mock-ups” was an interesting way of helping participants to see the artist as having the characteristic of a maker. The use of the paper bag was a good way to help us see the transformation of materials differently.

I now see that there’s a huge difference between online lessons which are asynchronous and teleconference facilitation which is synchronous. Online lessons are less interactive while teleconference art making can facilitate interaction and could engage participants more. This will require us to gain some technology know-how.

A character designed by Kuan Shin during Dahlia’s session that Kuan Shin used as an exemplar for an ongoing project his students were working on.

80 81

Shirley Toh Lay PengSubject Head (Art)

Ang Mo Kio Primary School

In April, I was disappointed when I saw that STAR workshops were suspended due to COVID-19. This was when I saw STAR’s post on a|edge sharing about the upcoming artist-led art making sessions.

As Zoom lessons had become the new norm in light of the COVID-19 situation, I also wanted to take that opportunity to see how I could adapt and adopt some learning points for my own art lessons.

After the first fun performance art session with Ezzam, I attended the caricature class by Dahlia and the sculpting class with David. I really enjoyed the sessions, as they not only provided me the opportunity to make art, but also the chance to see all the art teachers I often meet at workshops. I was glad to see everyone healthy, sharing the moment to make art together despite the physical constraints.

Moreover, the sessions were short and sweet, taking less than an

hour once a week. The session provided me with a therapeutic moment during that chaotic period amidst needing to prepare for HBL and take care of my family.

It provided me time to slow down and think, recap or trigger new ideas for art making. I have applied Ezzam’s activity on getting to re-appreciate “familiar” items with my Primary 2 students, and they really enjoyed it. I challenged them to balance origami paper on their shoulder and on their nose during our Zoom conference. We had a good laugh and bonded through the activity.

I really look forward to more of such sessions as the new norm might mean we would not have physical workshops that soon. Having the opportunity, no matter online or offline, to learn together as a fraternity is important and empowering.

Thank you STAR for the support!

Shirley’s digital drawing of her mother created during Dahlia’s caricature session.

Chia YingAcademy Officer

Lorraine LeeAcademy Officer

STAR

#ArtHacks: Tips and Considerations in Using

Videos in Teaching

82 83

Asynchronous or Synchronous?Should I Create My Own Videos?Creating bite-sized asynchronous videos usually require some time for scripting, recording and editing, however once done the videos can be archived as personal teaching videos for many years to come!

Synchronous videos on the other hand allow people to connect over real time. Learners will also appreciate the opportunity for the interaction and instantaneous feedback. Moreover, synchronous videos are not just for

Home-based Learning (HBL), they can also be a part of your art lessons in school, in collaboration with your colleagues for shared lessons. Watch how Subject Head (Art) Norfaraidh Binte Talib from Shuqun Primary School facilitates synchronous lesson with her Art Club students using Google Meet, and engages her students to reflect on their learning and provide feedback to their peers through the Student Learning Space (SLS).

If you found teaching videos that happen to fulfil your learning objectives well, that’s great! Spend the lesson preparation time designing questions/prompts that assists students to connect what they are watching with your lesson unit.

If you are thinking of starting your own collection of teaching videos or are looking for useful ideas to improve

your self-made teaching videos, watch this episode of #arthacks to find out why Art Teacher Lim Hui Chi from National Junior College creates her own teaching videos. Hui Chi will also share tips for creating bite-sized tutorial videos that demonstrate art techniques, and how she curates content to engage students via her YouTube channel.

Watch #arthacks Ep 8 (HBL ver.)—Facilitating Synchronous Lessons Online and Engaging Students in SLS

https://vimeo.com/412217159

Watch #arthacks Ep 7 (HBL ver.)—Creating Bite-Sized Tutorial Videos to Engage and Deepen Students’ Learning

https://vimeo.com/411245468

84 85

But What If…I’m not IT savvy?

How Should I Weave Video Into My Lesson Structure?

…or I’m not sure if my students will watch my videos?

Start small! Look at the many examples and tools that teachers have shared in SLS, STAR Art Facebook group, a|edge, and the SG Learning Designers Circle Facebook group. Be assured that the success of your video relies primarily on your skills that you already have—how you sequence learning that is appropriate for your students, rather than the complexity of the equipment or video effects. Each video you try will give you the insight as to how you can sequence the next!

Don’t be disheartened if the

students have not all watched your video or become disengaged with your video teaching. They are adjusting to this new way of learning too! You may like to ask them directly what they found to be the most effective and least effective parts of using videos for their learning, thereafter adjusting your approach based on their feedback.

Be patient with yourself and your students, and take courage when venturing into new possibilities, knowing that the expertise is all around you, in our teacher community!

Tasking learners to watch and respond to videos has always been a part of flipped classroom strategies for active learning. Videos are a great way to introduce ideas to kick start discussions and are usually placed at the ‘start’ of the next unit or used in the middle to extend the learning.

For younger students, the routine can be formed during face-to-face in class sessions first, where a bite-sized video is played at the start of each class and a response time follows. When students are used to the

expectations of how the teacher wants them to respond to the video, the response segment can develop richness in thinking. This routine could also be translated onto SLS. For older students, this pattern of learning can foster good active learning habits as they are encouraged to seek out resources on their own. Watch how Art Teacher Abdul Hadi Bin Abdul Wahab from Yishun Innova Junior college created bite-sized videos about art and artists, and uses Instagram to engage his art students in active learning.

Watch #arthacks Ep 6 (HBL ver.)—Creating Bite-Sized Video for Active Learning

https://vimeo.com/408369228

Talk Shop: Pre-recorded presentationsTalk Shop refers to pre-recorded presentations on completed research work, critical inquiry projects or term-long lesson units. Presenters may record the voiceover narration for presentations using the “Record Slide Show” feature on Microsoft PowerPoint or screen recording software. Individual and group presentations are welcomed.

There are three e-conference strands to focus our learning and exchange:

Diversity in Practice challenges arts educators to draw upon a wide range of ideas and insights, and to harness the power of arts engagement to prime learners in navigating and creating new meaning from a diversity of viewpoints. #differentiatedstrategies #communityofvoices #joyoflearning Arts as Lived Experiences explores artistic expression as a space for teachers to guide students in forging identity and values, as well as a mode for learning about culture, heritage and society. #identity&values #authenticity #artisticexpressionTransformation through Creativity and Innovation asks arts educators to engage in exchange about creative learning possibilities and promising teaching practices. Besides tried-and-tested ideas and best practices, what else? #homebasedlearning #blendedlearning #newliteracies

Strand 1:

Strand 2:

Strand 3:

Check out e-Conference Strands

Submit a ProposalCalling for submission of proposals to present at e-AEC 2020. All MOE Education Officers teaching Art, Music, Dance and Drama are invited to submit proposals for:

Submit proposal here: https://go.gov.sg/e-aec2020opencall

We look forward to e-meeting everyone and co-creating possibilities for teaching and learning in arts education for the new decade.

Pop-Up 10: Live-streamed discussions Pop-Up 10 are live-streamed discussions where individual presenters will pop-up for 10 minutes in pre-assigned virtual rooms at an allocated time to ‘sell’ certain key ideas or principles related to their work in teaching and learning or discuss a research study in progress. Presenters will then facilitate discussions by posing open-ended questions where participants can respond directly in the virtual rooms or using applications such as Padlet or Mentimeter.

Our biennial Arts Education Conference (AEC) is going online! Participate in two half afternoons of e-learning, e-making and e-sharing in the comfort of your own e-conference space.

Presenters and participants will have opportunities to:

↘ Share new perspectives on student-centric practices and e-pedagogy in the contexts of school-based and home-based learning.

↘ Synergise diverse ideas and imagine the future in arts education as we embrace efforts such as ‘SkillsFuture for Educators’ and ‘One Secondary Education, Many Pathways’ to develop our students to be lifelong learners.

↘ Expand practice possibilities through the collective imaginative capacities of local and overseas pedagogues, the local arts community and creative industries.

88 89

Heryanty Mohd YahayaSenior Academy Officer

↘ Heryanty_Mohamed_Yahaya@ moe.gov.sg

↘ 6664 1546

Victoria LoyMaster Teacher (Art)

↘ Victoria_Loy@moe.gov.sg ↘ 6664 1551

Lorraine Lee Academy Officer

↘ Lorraine_Lee@moe.gov.sg ↘ 6664 1552

Tan Bee NgohSenior Administrative Executive

↘ Tan_Bee_Ngoh@moe.gov.sg ↘ 6664 1549

Chia YingAcademy Officer

↘ Chia_Ying@moe.gov.sg ↘ 6664 1545

Chun Wee SanMaster Teacher (Art)

↘ Chun_Wee_San@moe.gov.sg ↘ 6664 1547

Chen Xiangling Jess Academy Officer

↘ Chen_Xiangling@moe.gov.sg ↘ 6664 1550

Lorraine LeeAcademy Officer, STAR

Kim Nguyen

Editor

Illustration and Graphic Design

Published by the Singapore Teachers' Academy for the aRts (STAR)

STAR-Post (Art)July 2020

Enjoyed the read? Let us know your feedback!https://go.gov.sg/starpost-feedback

Con

tact

Us!

Seow Ai WeeDeputy Director & Master Teacher (Art)

↘ Seow_Ai_Wee@moe.gov.sg ↘ 6664 1556

Lim Kok BoonMaster Teacher (Art)

↘ Lim_Kok_Boon@moe.gov.sg ↘ 6664 1502

Published by the Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR)

2 Malan Road, Block P,Singapore 109433Tel: +65 6664 1561Fax: +65 6273 9048