High school workshop

This was a difficult workshop as we only had a few hours worth of group planning and discussion so we had to try and squeeze everything in and plan quickly. The started out a little stressful as we had to have a room change because of interview so we had to move tables and equipment into a gallery space which didn't allow us to use the walls for poster as people had their work up for exhibition so we had to make do with putting them on the back of chairs and tables. There was also a communication problem inbetween groups as we were scrambling around moving tables and didn't have enough time to group up in the morning as the high school arrived early. This also cause a problem in the lesson plan as we had to add an extra activity on the end (defence weapons).

I think we could have done a lot better if we had more time for planning at the beginning so communication between groups wouldn't be such a big issue as everyone would know what to do. Also if as a group we discussed what was going on within each table would help make some tables more successful such as the can table it seemed like it was a little difficult to work with as the material is difficult to manipulate. The nature table was a successful table because each student received a senario which they had to cater to the product they produced. I also feel time management was a issue we could have improved as it we weren't all aware of changes that had been made and I felt 20mins per table was a little bit too long for the making process. The communication between the special collections group was also abit difficult as they weren't always present when there were changes being made so maybe if we'd had a person who could run back and forth between the gallery and the special collections to make them aware would of been helpful.

Despite all these changes and issues we came across I felt it still worked well overall as there were more better moments such as the group tour around the Art school and they students enjoyed the tasks as it was an exciting introduction and we got straight into the tasks. The number of people was also helpful as he group could work with the students and interact with them on a 1-1 basis. I think as a group we managed to keep it all together and work quickly even though we had problems at the beginning.

I really enjoyed working with year 9's as they were so imaginative and exciting they enjoyed making and talking to them about their work was interesting and rewarding as we were able to give them an exciting and fun workshop to remember.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Museums and galleries observation and research

Today we went on a few gallery visits we started off with The national football Museum where we were given a task to observe students and young children acting in a trip environment. Unfortunately there weren't many children at this museum but I did take a look around and noticed how interactive the football museum was, the museum had many interactive games and televisions. It's a great place for young children to go and learn in a fun way. There were many interactive touch screen games, magnetic games, puzzles, dress up and also table football.

During our time at the national football museum we also had a session with the museum educator and she told us a bit about her job role and also sessions that they ran at the museum. It was a good learning experience, she told us that they ran sessions for adults, children and also toddlers. Sessions with toddlers were exploring their senses and also story telling. They have different sessions for each age range. She also gave tips on how to get attention such as clapping and lowering your voice for them to listen up. She also emphasised the fact that managing the behaviour of students wasn't part of her job and talking to the teachers or carers that brought the students is the answer.

We then went onto The Museum of Science and Industry this time it was filled with young school children! There were more than one school so it was crazy. The things that I had notices were children weren't fully engaging with what was on in the museum as they were running around and playing with with the different interaction parts of the museums I noticed this in particularly the younger children. I think their excitement levels are high as they were outside school and in a new environment. I witnessed one of the teachers shout at the children to behave but they'd continued to misbehave. I think if I was the teacher of these children I would out them into small groups and give them a task to complete that way you know they're engaging in the museum visit and you're also aware of what they are doing and the children know they have a task to complete to take back to school.

With older children I saw that they engaged more in what was going on in the museum in one part there was a talk going on where everyone was sat down and listening to someone who works at the museum give a talk this is also a good way to get everyone's attention at once and a good way of educating everyone together.

I then went off to The Manchester museum with some of my group to have a look if there was anything interesting going on there. I looked around and found interest in the tribal section of the museum I thought this was a good thing to do for the second part of our task which was to create a workshop where you will have no face-to-face engagement with your audience. Looking around the museum they had worksheets dotted around for children to do whilst they visited the museum this influenced me to write my own worksheet for children to do when they visited the museum particularly for the tribal section. Questions that I asked on the worksheet were:

• Looking at the different tribal patterns that are on display can you name some of the shapes you can see?
• What do you think these tribal textiles were used for?
• What modern day techniques do you think you can use to make similar designs? E.g. Batik, weave
• Using different colours and repetitive shapes can you make a tribal pattern but with a new modern take. You could include patterns and shapes that you feel are popular in today's society.

 

 

 

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