Teaching Practice - Post Primary Teaching
"We say arts education is good for general education, but that's not the point. The arts are what great nations are remembered for. They are a mirror."
Damian Woetzel
Naas Community College, Naas, Co. Kildare
I returned to Naas Community College for a solo teaching placement at the start of 2020 but unfortunately it was cut short when schools closed in March. Presented here are two lesson plans, one that was started but never completed and the other is a plan for an online class that I didn't have the opportunity to start.
Naas Community College is a co-educational, multi-denominational post primary school under the aegis of KWETB. The college welcomed its first cohort of first year students in August 2015.
Naas Community College is a place of learning where students not only meet their full potential but are challenged to excel in new areas and a place that inspires a love of learning and a passion for creativity.
Much current education philosophical research has placed great importance, for schools and students, on the “4 C’s”: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity. Naas Community College endorse that thinking but seek to add one more: Courage, in the willingness to challenge themselves; and by remaining strong in their individual convictions and beliefs.
They play an active role in their community, to be an institution that educates in the first instance, but which also contributes to and supports the various elements of their community. They play a leading role within the KWETB organisation of which they are part, as well as the wider learning community of Naas and Kildare.
Unit of Learning One:
First Year - Construction
Aim of Unit of Learning:
Through observational drawing and material experimentation students will explore shape, form and structure. They will research the theme Polygon Ornithology through its elements: researching polygon shapes, low-res sculptures and Irish birds as a basis for their construction. then design and construct a 3D bird in polygon shapes using cardboard or card.
CRITICAL AND VISUAL LANGUAGE
1.3 critique an artwork using critical and visual language
DRAWING
2.5 Develop their ideas for craftwork through drawing.
VISUAL CULTURE AND APPRECIATION
1.8 discuss examples of historical and contemporary visual art
AEDP
3.12 Assess their own and other’s design work using their knowledge of art elements and design principles.
MEDIA
3.14 Utilise media in their own design work based on a design brief
Unit of Learning Two:
Plan for Remote Learning
Aim of Unit of Learning:
Students will explore the medium of animation through historical and contemporary studies, observational tasks and learning activities during remote classes and independent practice. Students will plan and create a stop-motion animation based on the poem “The Tuft of Flowers” by Robert Frost, experimenting with mixed media and natural or man-made objects. Each animation should be 30 - 50 frames and 30 - 60 seconds long with an emphasis on colour, space, pattern and shape.
Learning Outcomes
Critical and Visual Language
1.2 respond to an artwork using
critical and visual language (affective)
Drawing
2.6 investigate their own personal
approach to craftwork through the
technical and creative application of
drawing and mark-making (cognitive, psychomotor)
Visual culture and appreciation
1.7 examine the method of a number of
artists and the artwork they created (cognitive)
Art Elements and Design Principles
3.10 explain the use of art elements and
design principles in examples of design
work (cognitive)
Media
1.15 critique the choice of media in their
own or others’ artwork (cognitive, affective)
