Home study in case of H1N1 shutdown:

With so much news and daily directives about H1N1 from the ministry of health (appearing in the local newspapers), I think it is pertinent to do some standby work on my blog for virtual learning. Two slides are added to prompt students on the revised art syllabus for lower secondary (sec 1 and sec 2).
My students would be briefed at the beginning of the year to come to this blog automatically when there is a shutdown.
I just hope that they would take it seriously and cheerfully!

Hello, welcome onboard!

Questionable Art

The last school I went to was very challenging. It's the first school I saw allowing graffiti in every students' toilet. They were done without much attention to the needed skills in designing, handling of brushes and materials. Not to mention the appreciation of spray-paint skill and its effect. The results were dark and gloomy. I felt uneasy.

I have to question: must all free expressions ended up in this manner?

Art with H1N1?

Art teacher is not excused from e-learning no matter how unimportant the art subject is. So, with this current impact of H1N1 globally, I'm also being asked to put up 'something' for students to respond in the case of school shutdown. How then?

First thing to come in must be a message to students, of course, no matter what kind of software engine or format being used. So, my dear students of whatever school I'm teaching at the time of crisis, please note the following:

IN CASE OF SCHOOL SHUTDOWN, EVEN WITHOUT MY BRIEFING,
YOU ARE NOT EXCUSED FOR
NOT COMING TO YOUR ART TEACHER'S BLOG TO LOOK FOR E-INSTRUCTIONS!

ART, after all, IS OPEN ENDED, RIGHT?

HAPPY LEARNING and GOOD LUCK.

Art Teacher 'on the run'

When a phone call comes in and the other end is a principal talking about a need for art teacher, it is so difficult to reject the urgent request. Yet, this is against my retirement plan to focus on my painting.
Then again, it is no joke nowadays when discussing about coursework (a whole-year art project) for the graduating students. Most of these students are not prepared to face the high expectation of the new syllabus. Also, there are so many constraint for the art teachers to expose them to the full package of perceiving, communicating and appreciating. Alas, there are high possibility that an adjunct flexi art teacher is needed at any time of the year. So strange yet very real. I become that kind of teacher on the run. Term-by-term or even term-after-term.
There is no ending and I'm going to miss my own creation.

Teacher is back

The art teacher had taken a one-year unpaid leave to do some art(soul)-searching. Teaching is not easy in Singapore. Especially so, if your subject is 'non-core'; a very funny term to tell you that there is no priority, no budget allocated, no proper space (incidentally, art requires more space than any subject) and no appreciation.
Yet, every now and then, you would see headlines about shifting of teaching method (new pedagogy) to the more creative or to the 'more relevant'.

Now, the one-year (self-declared) sabbatical leave is over and the teacher is back to thinking about the art lesson and the relevancy of art-teaching.

This is a link site to the home page at chinese art teacher. All matters of art teaching are discussed here.

The home page contains the artist's works and his idea for creation.