Another successful IB DP Exhibition! These guys are so awesome! And just to let you know how hard they really worked – here is a peek behind the scenes during the last week prior to the Exhibition. And to create some excitement…. we created posters and did a social media blitz! Because why not? And FINALLY! The time has come! The IB DP Visual Arts Exhibition opens it doors! What a fun night! Our halls of SIS came alive with […]
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Besides our IB art show which I organized alongside with our fabulous IB DP students, we also organize a MS/HS art show in May. See more about our MS/HS art show from my post on my SIS art blog During the Art show, I always like to include an ‘ audience participation’ section. This year, inspired by the sticky note art galleries popping up around the world, we decided to create our own! Visitors to the MS/HS art show could […]
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Our IB DP Visual Arts Exhibition was wonderfully successful! Our students hard work paid off and they really enjoyed showing their revealing personal art shows to their peers and parents! But don’t take my word for it – take a look at what others are saying! Spencer Low (HL) UPDATE: Spencer is not attending King’s College in Cambridge! Viriginia Li (HL) UPDATE: Viriginia is now attending USC, studying Film. Anna Duan (SL) UPDATE: Anna is now attending Boston College, studying […]
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During my first year at SIS, I taught our Grade 9 Art class. During this class, we took the time to develop our documenting skills and experimented with old school (sketchbooks) and new school (screens) to try and figure out which way works best for us – as we continue in our HS journey – leading us to IB Art. Still Life Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth Batik and Watercolour Final Project
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Art Rocks Mandalas Book Collages
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Sculpture Papercut Perspective Studies
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During the 2017-2018 year at SIS, I taught grade 6, grade 7 as well as MS elective classes. This gave me the opportunity to try out new ideas and experiment with what was possible. For the Grade 6 Climate Change project, we collaborated with Humanities classes. During our process we first looked at artists with a message, Chris Jordan and Jill Pelto, then we looked at how illustrator Yuko Shimizu develops her ideas and her process. We also tapped into […]
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For the IGCSE submission, the expectation is that the students complete two parts – Coursework and Final Exam during Year 11. For Coursework, students are expected to submit 4 Preparation Boards and 1 Final Work. In order to maximize our submissions, we used both sides of our Preparation Boards. Students could choose their own topic and were expected to show the process of developing their idea and final composition. Topics for the exam component are released in January, giving the […]
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Even though YCIS Qingdao was a small developing population, the students were super engaged, creative and artistic. Parents were eager to be informed and included in the student’s and the few non-Art taking students were always supportive – and (surprising to themselves) able to get involved in the art as well. In order to engage everyone in art, I developed my blog to showcase our Art work. (Click here to go to YCIS Art Blog) I filled the walls with […]
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One big highlight of teaching in International schools, is that our students are truly international. All students have passports and are comfortable and confident travelers. YCIS Qingdao is located in Huangdao, which is a small developing satellite suburb of Qingdao proper – which means, for an Art class, galleries to visit are few and far between. Lucky for us, YCIS has schools in many attractive cities around China, and so during my stay, I was able to organize and accompany […]
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HS Art, starting at Year 9 is when students make their own course selections with a view to moving up through the standardized assessment processes of IGCSE in Year 10 and IB for 11 and 12. In order to support the students in both of those programs, I designed the program to develop the student’s technical skills, compositional development and creative idea development. Still Life Portraiture Classical Oil Painting Pop Art Inspired Abstract Floral Forms
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At YCIS, Lower Secondary Art is a scheduled class – which means all student take Art. It is scheduled alternatively with music and segmented into terms – with one term switching with Woodworking and Design Skills. Since in class art making time was limited, for LS Art, I tried to combine both technical skills with creative explorations – looking at our surroundings in different ways – from going outside to sketch and photograph what we see, using paper cuts to […]
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For Middle School Art, we focused an understanding of the Principles of Design through various activities. I also encouraged students to begin the practice of sketching and idea development. Jellyfish Watercolour Explorations Mondrian Inspired Tiles Qingdao Architecture
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At YCIS Qingdao, during my first year, I had the opportunity to teach Primary art. Primary classes were much larger than my Secondary classes and I only saw students 1 or 2 times a week – however, we were able to explore so many wonderful new ideas. The creativity and energy of my students inspired and uplifted me. Some examples of our more successful projects are: Paul Klee Inspired Studies and Portraits: We explored how Paul Klee used lines, shapes […]
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At ISE, we designed the Lower Secondary courses to prepare students for the IB DP programme. During their LS Art courses, they were able to experiment with many different mediums (illustration, painting, photography, installation, sculpture, etc), develop critical thinking skills… and have fun! Portraits: We learnt how to draw realistic portraits with pencil….. then explored PODs Contrast and Emphasis creating interest with oil pastels. Paper Cut: Looking at fairy tales and how one picture can tell the whole story, students […]
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Our 2015 IB DP class successfully completed their IB and ISE submissions with a stunning gallery in ISE’s new Fine Arts Centre. In our IB class, we experimented with a variety of mediums and ideas – painting, sculpture, installation, video, murals, paper cut… basically whatever the students could think of! In order to develop our ideas and find more inspiration – we also took as many trips as we could into Bangkok and around Pattaya.
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So excited to see the collage work of ISE’s MS artist Jen Ko in EARCOS Spring 2014 magazine. (I sent EARCOS 3 options from 2014’s awesome grade 7 colour collage project. This was an excellent project!)
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: amy atkinson, art ed, art teachers, international school eastern seaboard, ISE, ISEArt, visual art
‘Art does not only exist in the art class‘. I find that if I encourage art throughout the school, not only does my art program become more dynamic and populated, but the school population becomes more engaged. ‘Engaged students and teachers creates more learning opportunities‘. At ISE, I focused much time in showcasing student’s creativity and developing ways to include all students within the creative process, allowing them to realize the power of art. Thai Study Trips After my first […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: amy atkinson, art teacher, international school eastern seaboard, ISEArt, teaching portfolio, visual art
Our HS Moving Arts class tried to provide an introduction to Film. We looked at many different aspects from studying some of the classics (early made films, great blockbusters), various genres, technical skills (film shots, editing) as well as storyboarding, branding… and whatever else we thought would be useful to the film process. For some idea of the films we looked at, click here to visit my you-tube channel for resources. And for highlights of student’s work, click here for […]
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Because ISE was located in between Pattaya and Bangkok in the middle of a golf course (idyllic i know!) but we were hard pressed to find art galleries close by for day trips. After I settled into Thai life, I was able to explore my surroundings and develop learning trips for my art students to engage with local culture and local artisans as well as more contemporary gallery trips. Having a small class, gave us an advantage transportation wise – […]
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During my stay at ISE, I worked on the appearance of the Courtyard on the first floor. Inspired by Feng Shui and trips to our MRISA school community, I worked with our leadership team and our maintenance team to design new furniture, paint the walls and floor, hang pictures of our Annual Thai Studies trips and inspirational quotes. Using the winning photos of our Photo Contests, we created ISE Reads posters to inspire Literacy. For our Senior Art students legacy project, […]
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In 2015, I travelled with ISE Art students to South Saigon International School for our annual Arts Exchange. Some really cool workshops on offer with lots of opportunities for students to collaborate with Art students from 8 different MRISA schools. Some of the highlights were Thai Artist NAME Painting workshops, Waterlily Mixed Media, Text Portrait. Due to building expansion, the SSIS campus had a floor of empty classrooms, that were just about to renovated. Our Arts X took advantage and […]
Categories: ISE, Uncategorized • Tags: ArtRocks, ArtsExchange, IBArt, ISEArt, MRISA
At ISE, for Y8 and Y9, I introduced a new method of sketching, I liked to call ‘Educated Sketches’. Students were encouraged to research artists, choose one of their artist’s work, analyse it and then re-create it – either as close to the original as possible… or to slightly and uniquely change it to reflect their own interpretation. Some of the results from my art students amazed me!!
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: ArtRocks, ISEArt, LowerSecondaryArt, Sketchbooks
Since ISE was under construction and Gallery Space was limited, for our IB graduates in 2014, we created a book showcasing their super creative works. We distributed the book to these hardworking students at graduation so they could forever have a memento of their artistic endeavours at ISE.
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MRISA is a community of 6 schools from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos that meet for sports, leadership and arts during the year. In 2014, the Arts Exchange was hosted by ISE. The theme was ‘HYBRID’. I was responsible for organizing 8 different Art Workshops, sourcing materials, managing space and instructing workshops. Over a 3-day weekend over 100 students visited ISE and participated in Art, Music and Drama Workshops. For Art, there were 8 different 8 workshops, culminating in a […]
Categories: ISE, Uncategorized • Tags: ArtRocks, ArtsExchange, ISEArt, MRISA
2011 SGS student was awarded SYF Bronze and works from 2012 SGS students were selected as Finalists for SYF being included in the Grand Art Exhibition at LaSalle Art College (2013).
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For GCSE Singapore, students are expected to submit 5 Preparation Boards and 1 Final Work. The topics were assigned in December 2012 and students had until August 2012 to develop their ideas and create their works. Topics for 2012 N (A) Level were: Confectionary, Self Portrait, From the Sea and Growth. At SGS we submitted work in drawing (pencil, pastel, coloured pencils) paint, fashion design and mixed media. N(A) Level Submission: GROWTH, Final Work: Pencil and Watercolor N(A) Level Submission: FROM […]
Categories: Serangoon Garden
For GCSE Singapore O Levels, students are expected to submit 8 Preparation Boards and 1 Final Work. The topics were assigned in January 2013 and students had until October 2013 to develop their ideas and create their works. Topics for 2013 O Level were: Distorted Viewpoints, Underground, Seated Figures. At SGS we submitted work in drawing (pencil, pastel, coloured pencils) paint, fashion design and mixed media. I was able to work with this class for both 2 years I was […]
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For O Level Art in Singapore, students are expected to submit 8 boards showing development and preparatory studies plus their final work. The topics for O Levels in 2012 were New Growth, The Old and New, Angular Forms, Bunches of Fruits and Vegetables, Asleep and Instruments. From SGS, we submitted Drawing, Painting, Fashion Design, Printmaking, Paper Cut and Graphic Novel Design (Story and Illustration). The following are selected student works of Distinction (40% of the class!) A few Final Works […]
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For GCSE Singapore, students are expected to submit 5 Preparation Boards and 1 Final Work. The topics were assigned in December 2011 and students had until August 2012 to develop their ideas and create their works. Topics for 2012 N (A) Level were: Entwined, Flowering Plants, Cycle Parts, Acrobatics and Flags and Banners. At SGS we submitted work in paint, printmaking, paper cut and mixed media. The following are selected student works of Distinction (80% of the class!) A few Final Works […]
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