Starry, Starry Night!

This is a new module for Sec 2 Art this year and we got the SOW just one week before the launch of the programme. My NIE trainee and I had a hard time understanding the SOW as we felt it was too tough for the students. The SOW should be for the Upper Secondary. We decided to make some changes to it and the end result is encouraging.

Instead of doing Claude Monet’s Haystacks or Water Lilies, I decided to work on Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry, Starry Night as I like the song very much. I even wanted to go New York to look at the painting at The Museum of Modern Art. Thus, my poor students have to do this painting.

I think the learning point of this module besides getting the good artworks from the students; I would like to focus on the impact teachers have on students. I am usually appointed to be a Cooperating teacher (CT) for NIE trainees for Mathematics and I have worked only with 2 Art trainees.

My first Art trainee is Secondary school trained but attached to a primary school because she is majoring in Ceramics. She is doing well now in a new Secondary school with 3 Art teachers under her wings.

I was very happy to know that she is doing well during the Art & Music Conference 2009. I was taking to a group of secondary teachers whom I did not know during the break and somehow our conversation went to their boss whom was staying back in school to cover their duties so that they have the opportunity to attend the Conference.

They were sharing with me how they appreciated her effort and I was indeed curious to know who this lady was. With my further investigation, I discovered that she was my first Art trainee. Then, they suggested to me that I must know her and I informed them that I did as I was her CT. There was a silent. Then, someone commented - so you are the one she is sharing with us in school.

My second Art trainee is a very hardworking lady. She is also doing well as she is offered to pursue her degree in NIE. I miss her quite a bit because whenever I look at the students’ artworks on Starry, Starry Night; I will appreciate the journey we went together that builds up our friendship while doing the module. Occasionally, I will run into her at Yishun and it is delighted to know that the adult students under my care are doing well.

Recently, we have another Art trainee and sad to say, I totally cannot have the same pleasant feeling that I have for my previous 2 trainees. I was her second CT and she was attached to me for 1 period of CE and 2 periods of Art lesson.

During the first week, she was unable to turn up for CE as she was having a meeting with the management. The second week, she did not turn up because she could not locate the classroom and the next 2 weeks, she did not turn up for any CE lesson.

As for Art lesson, she was there because she is not trained in Ceramics and we had to do it in Term 3 thus she needs to observe how I conduct the demonstration in class. After the demonstration, she would seek approval to leave early as she was having some pains here or there. Thus, every week I was waiting to discover what was the ‘highlight’ of that particular week.

The last ‘highlight’ given to me on her last day in school was something that made me speechless. She turned up during recess time to bid farewell in Art room 1 and I was wondering why she was so early for the class. She informed me that she would be late for the lesson because she needed to bid farewell to the people in the school. Just as I expected, she did not turn up for lesson at all.

The encounter with this trainee triggered me to wonder if I will to leave the school end of this year. How many days do I need to bid farewell to my colleagues? A week? Will my reporting officer cover my duties so that I can spend some time to say some words to my colleagues in the school?

My point is to highlight the impact what teachers can have on the students (they can be the trainees or students in school). You have to make a conscious effort to guide them closely and properly so that they will pass down the good practices that you hold dearly and I strongly believe they will appreciate the effort you are putting in now.