Pro-Practise collaboration

Crafts with Boys Brigade

What is boys brigade?

 Boys' Brigade is a Christian run organisation, it was founded by Sir William Alexander Smith, the main purpose of the organisation was set up to integrate fun activities with christian values. Following its introduction in Glasgow in 1883, the Boys brigade spread quickly across the UK and was a worldwide organisation by the early 1980's. 

Boys Brigade is organised into...sections, depending on age; 

• Anchor Section - for Boys aged 5 to 8 years
• Junior Section - for Boys aged 8 to 11 years
• Company Section - for Boys aged 11 to 15 years
• Seniors - for young men aged 15 to 18 years
• Amicus - for young people aged 14 to 22 year

As part if our collaboration project, we will be working with anchor boys and potentially moving on to juniors in the later part of our programme.

What is the Anchor Section?

The Anchor Section is the youngest section in the BB and is for children aged between 5 and 8.

What do they do?

The Anchor Section has lots of fun doing different activities which include making things, crafts, music, games, sports, stories, going on visits, making friends, and working towards their badges. 

All of this is done as part of a balanced programme that is separated into 5 different zones; 

How we planned our time;

Date:	Theme	Craft	Materials
12/3	Getting to know thechildren	Paper-plate Hats	Paper plates, pritt stick, felt tips, stickers,
19/3	Insects	Pebble art	Pebbles/stones, paint, Googly eyes, pipe-cleaners,Sharpie markers, newspaper, paper plates, paper bowls, paint brushes, black plastic bags

26/3	Mother’s day	Cards	Card, buttons, flowers, tissue paper, ribbon, sequins, glitter, pipe-cleaners, lolly pop sticks, paint,
2/4	Easter	Easter Cards,Easter letters,  Easter Crosses
9/4	Easter	Easter Baskets,   Paper platechicks, EasterGardens

16/4	/	HOLIDAY	/
23/4	/	HOLIDAY	/
30/4	Recycle crafts	Piggy Banks	250ml bottles, pink tissue paper, pink paper ears, prittstick, googly eyes, pink pigs noses
7/5	Nature	Paint printing	Plastic bottles
14/5	Super hero	Super hero-asks	Flexi-foam

Our first session;

 This session was a "getting to know you session" which consisted of making a paper hat (using paper plates)  the boys were then asked to write 5 things about themselves/ or things they like.

Our second session;

Lindsey provided paint, Pebbles and images for the night, the session was based around the idea of nature and insects;

We had asked the boys to decorate the Pebbles as insects, we all were a bit ambitious of this as most of the pebbles came back covered in paint with no sign of insects.

Our third session;

Based on mother's day, we asked the boys to make mother's day Cards, lindsey supplied most the materials (pens, paper, decorations)

Whilst I provides cut out paper hearts, cards and envelopes.

I had also wanted to get the boys to create paper flowers that they could give to their mom's as mother day presents, (using green straws and tissue paper) however we had ran out of time and could not start the activity.

After a tutorial session it was clear that Lidsey felt in over her head as she was supplying and organising most of the crafts, although I had chipped in with ideas and offered to lighten the expenditure lindsey was facing, I had also helped with some resources. We felt like not everyone was contributing equally.

On the day we all watched over separate groups and participated it was not fair for lindsey to have to organise all the material. It was here I suggested to lindsey that we all do our own crafts, whilst supplying the materials ourselves.

Session 4:

In our fourth session we found ourselves split into three groups each pursuing a different craft, our idea was to get the boys to move around and create more then one craft.

I was in charge of Easter cards, I supplied all the materials, for this craft.

Materials needed for this craft;

• Cards and envelopes
• felt tip pens
• pencils
• crayons
• tissue paper/crepe paper
• stickers (easter themed)
• glue

This is my example that was shown to the boys;

This is some of the work the boys produced;

Session 5;

In this session like our previous session we focused on Easter crafts, I had offered to do Easter gardens, which entailed; me making 15 square gardens using paper plates.

The boys were asked to make flowers, decorate polystyrene Easter Eggs, and generally decorate their gardens.

Materials needed for this session;

felt tip pens

pencils

crayons

tissue paper/crepe paper

Easter themed decorations

glue

scissors

cellotape

these are the examples of easter crafts I found online;

I had wanted to print out information on what flowers grow in spring time as to add some insight and learning to the activity, however,, from previous sessions I thought this would be a waste of time and resources as the Boy's preferred to do things their own way.

My garden idea;

to create the Easter gardens, I first folder 16 paper plates into square shapes, cello-taped the corners and coated them with a wash of brown paint to make them look like fence panels.

With my own Garden, I started to cut out chunks to make a picket fence style, I decided that id' leave it white as the white picket fence idea looked nice to me.

I added some green tissue paper to the 'ground' to act as grass and then developed by cutting flowers from card and using paper flowers that I had brought (these all so had gems the boys could use).
I had also brought polystyrene eggs I decorated a few of these and stuck them into my garden as well as plastic chicks.

Session 6;

Unfortunately I was unable to make this session as I had been really ill and couldn't make it.

The session was left up to Lindsey and Charlie, the girls combined both super hero masks and Piggy banks together to give the boys a variety of activities to do.

Session 7;

nature/bottle painting, Lindsey originally gave me the idea for this, I suggested finger painting to make the flower petals but she said it would be too messy and I should look at bottle printing.


what was needed for this session;

• paint (I used neon pink, yellow orange and green)
• felts/crayons
• empty washed plastic bottles (various sizes)
• paper (I brought a large poster roll)

Taking idea from flower paintings, I decided that I would quite like the boys to make a display piece to exhibit on the walls in their classroom, I originally sketched out this image of a tree;

and added a few 'bottle flowers' myself just to show the boys how to dip the paint.

This is what the boys returned to me;

it seemed two of the boys on this particular day felt quite destructive and completely ignored what I had said, even when I reminded the boys that this would be a display piece and I had wanted at least one print from all the boys on it as a mural, they continued to smudge paint every where.

One of the boys actually felt quite sad that the other two had 'sabotaged' his image as he put it, so I offered to let him make his own, this is the result I got from him.

I also had another image created in a similar style;

This one unfortunately was not finished.

I was also quite intrigued with the pattern that was left when the boys had placed their bottles back on to a blank piece of paper (I had put this paper down so the boys didn't get paint every where.)

session 8;
Throughout the project I really wanted the boys to learn something, that would help towards there badge as they have been looking at nature; plants and insects, seasonal tasks and they have a badge based on space I thought I would take it on myself to teach them something about...
the solar system;

 I had wanted the boys to create a 3d mobile, I originally made a polystyrene mobile however, I knew I wouldn't have enough polystyrene balls to make 15, nor would I have the time with the boys to make the solar systems as we usually only get between 10-25 minutes craft time. So I looked for a cheaper and faster alternative, I made this example to show them...

these are  few of the cheaper & fast alternatives I found, print outs with planets on them so the boys could just colour them in and attach them to their mobiles.

I had ordered some black paper plates for the mobiles but they never arrived in time, I also miss placed my black paint, so to colour the plates I used permanent markers.

I decided against using this one and went for the first alternative as it seems more child friendly.

Here are a few images of what we made on the night;

Some of the boys didn't want to make solar systems so I also gave them the option to create a solar system picture. we didn't manage to get any of the solar system mobiles finished due to lack of time, all that was left was for the boys to stick their planets onto the mobile so they took them home to finish them off.

Our Website;

Www.primarycraftprojects.wix.com/primarycraftprojects 

I created this website after a tutorial with Sean, he asked us what our aims and objectives are for the project and how we wanted to present ourselves as professionals.
He asked us if we had a name for our collaborative group and at this point we didn't, he then suggest we played around with our names (Lindsey, Charlie, Jamie) to see if we could find anything he then suggested our last names (Broadfield, Woolls and Russell) which was even worse.
During our discussion he asked what we did in the workshops and with what ages of children, the answer came to be our name 'Primary Craft Projects' as this could be applied to all aspects of our workshops if we had further opportunities. He then suggested that we should create an online portfolio.

I originally started using a website software called webs, but it was really difficult and made things hard to edit.

Stuart recommended Wix and I made the basics of the website in a day, I then updated it weekly with the workshops we had done.
 

Presenting our work;

To present our work we organised the table in to groups and set on different crafts for our peers to perform.
we then spoke about what we had been doing at the boys brigade and how we feel the project had gone.

overall, I feel the project was a success, I learned that I am still passionate about teaching, however, I would prefer to specialise in secondary school teaching and help students who have specialist areas in art.

If I could have changed anything I the project it would to have had the opportunity to work with anther group of students instead of just boys brigade. I would have also liked to get the boys to learn more things as I felt that the craft times were used for the boys to mess around and just make things, thy never learned anything that would potentially help them in gaining their badges next year. 

Pro-Practise Work Experience

What would I like to be?

From a young age I have always wanted to educate others, thus I feel a job in education (teaching or even art curating in a gallery) would best be suited to me.

What research I have done;
 To find most of these places I have searched Google for addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of various places all within the educational department.
 I also used resources that had been put together by the university it gave a list of names and email addresses, I still then checked to see if they were still valid, as well as using my knowledge of schools around my local area to apply at and contacted art galleries I already knew about.

Who I've applied to/ contacted;

The New Art Gallery Wasall

Ikon art gallery

Eastside projects gallery

Four Dwellings primary academy

Lordswood Girls High School

Lordswood Boys High school

World's end primary school

Woodhouse primary academy

Hurst Green primary school

Leasowes High school

Birmingham children's hospital (educational team)

Four Dwellings High school

Cadbury sixth form college

Hillcrest High school

Bartley Green High School


Places I've had response from;

Four Dwellings primary academy

I have relatives who attend this school, I also attended the school in my primary years leaving in 2004, since then the school has changed a lot.
Whilst picking up my relatives from school I thought I should  personally apply to the school.
It wasn't long until the head of school came into the reception area to greet me, he said unfortunately, because of them being in special measures (reason they're now an academy) that they wouldn't be able to take me on for a placement, but if I wanted to return and try in 2015, then I'd definitely be able to have a placement.

Worlds End Academy;

I called the school to ask about work placements the receptionist gave me and email address to inquire.
I received a response to my email very quickly but Unfortunately they had no places but said they would keep me on record in case any placements become available.

The New Art Gallery Walsall

I emailed the coordinator of education at TNAGW Zoe, and asked about any placements on 5th March.
I had a reply from her on instantly asking me to fill out an application form.
I then met with her when our class took a trip to see what it's like to work in the various positions in different galleries.
I spoke to her in person about what I'd need to put in my application to be selected to work in the education department.
My application was then sent back on the 17th of march.
 Up until April the first I hadn't heard anything back to I emailed Zoe to see if she had received my application, I still had no response.
 It was then on the 25th of April I then emailed Zoe again to see if there was a problem with my application, to which she replied saying that the gallery had been very busy, and there was a backlog on applications, so they wouldn't be able to take me on a placement.


Eastside projects;

With eastside projects I volunteered to help out and try and gain some relevant work experience;

To begin I emailed Elinor Morgan 21st January at eastside and asked about a possible work placement, I was asked to fill out and application form and send it back.

After correspondence I was requested to go to eastside and meet with James, 14th February 1-2:30pm, I was inducted to health and safety procedures and found out some information about eastside, such as;

• The way the gallery is run
• What artists can exhibit their work
• What's required of volunteers 
• How the volunteering program runs

(there was slight confusion over this as James told me it wouldn't be classed as a work placement as I was only volunteering my time, after speaking to Cheryl and Elle about the confusion, they both insured me that it would count towards my placement.)

I had offered to help the gallery prepare for the exhibition (painting walls, setting up exhibition) but was told I was not needed.



Bill Drummond Exhibition I invidulated the opening night of the Bill Drummond exhibition (14th March) 5-8:30pm

After the exhibition opening I decided that invidulating wasn't something I'd like to do because there was no actual connection to education or teaching involved, although I learned aspects of what galleries have to offer.
I offered to help out a few more times after this time see if my opinion would change, but it didn't. I still want to teach or have an educational role, therefor, this placement was not suited for me.

Leasowes High School;

I first contacted Leasowes high school in February when I called the school to see if they accepted work placements.
I was given an email address to contact and sent my email on the 27th of February. After receiving no response I called the school again and asked if there was somebody I could directly speak to, they gave me the email address of a Mr. Roe, I contacted him on the 4th of march regarding a placement.
On the 14th of march I still hadn't received a response to I emailed Brian again. On the 19th I received a response off Brian saying that he always contacts the relevant field for that particular placement he then gave me two email addresses to email and ask about the placement, I emailed both and I received a reply from Eve on the 31st of march.
She said that I should be ok to have a placement after the Easter break, however it was then I ran into further complications as she was requesting a CRB that I did not have, she said she would see if there was a way around having a CRB and would get back to me.
After 3 weeks of not hearing anything back I emailed her to see if I was still able to get a placement, she then asked me to meet her on Tuesday the 6th of may.
Whilst meeting up with her, she said that there is a application form I need to fill out with relevant referees and send it back to the school, however,  this will be emailed to me by someone else after she has contacted them.
She said once the head teacher has given the go a head I can start my placement but this wouldn't be until the next half term.
As of Wednesday the 21st may, I am still waiting for The necessary paperwork I was told I'd receive by email.

When I eventually receive the email, I will finish the application and give all the relevant information that they require.

What I plan to do on my placement;

Spend at least one week at the school in the art department.

• See how lesson plans are set up 
• See what the school has to offer as a placement 
• What the school has on its curriculum 
• Attempt to teach/co-teach a lesson 
• Plan my own lesson
• Ask for daily evaluation

Four Dwellings High school;

I was a bit resistant to apply to four Dwellings with it being My secondary school but with my deadline approaching and not much work experience I decided it was a relevant option. After my meeting with Eve at Leasowes I decided I would ask for a placement at Four Dwellings. (6th may)
The first thing I did was call the school to see if they accepted work placements. The receptionist put me on hold whilst speaking to the business manager, she then asked me to email the inquiry address and assured me it would be directed to the right department at the school.
I received a email back off the head of the art department(7th may), he said I need to contact him next week because he's tied up with year 11 exams this week but I can have a placement as soon as we've arranged dates.
20th may 2014- I have been offered a place to start the beginning of next term, (still finalising dates)I have also been told the school will conduct a CRB check on my behalf and I will be able to keep the certificate for my own use afterwards.

My plan for my upcoming work Placement;

• Meet with the head of art
• Take the relevant identification required for my CRB check
• Agree on times and dates
• Spend at least one week at the school in the art department.
• See how lesson plans are set up 
• See what the school has to offer as a placement 
• What the school has on its curriculum 
• Attempt to teach/co-teach a lesson 
• Plan my own lesson
• Ask for daily evaluation 

Ikon art gallery

When I was in secondary school I took part in a group project working with Ikon over a period of 10 weeks during 2006.
The idea if the project was to get young people interested in Art, I worked with a lady called Kate who worked at the Ikon in the education department .
We produced a publication piece (leaflet) by the name of Onki which is an anagram of Ikon)
When I looked on the Ikon website it said that there volunteering process had already finished and that I wouldn't be able to apply till June, after speaking to Stuart and telling him about working with Kate he gave me her email address.
I emailed Kate and she remembered me from the project, we then set placement dates to meet and times, I was invited to the IYP; (The Ikon Youth Programme (IYP) is a group of young people aged 15-19 from Birmingham who meet regularly to make artwork, meet other young people, host events and develop their own projects) at Ikon held on the 13th of may from 5-7:30, here I met a group of young people interested in art and met with two artist called Juneau projects.
Kate has told me she will be in contact with me as soon as she can find me a placement, she has also offered to let me become a member of the IYP and help to produce work with the
"Black Country Voyages (2014-17) is an art programme for local young people, aged 15-19 years old, on board a canal boat Aaron Manby generously leased from Sandwell Council. Black Country Voyages is organised in collaboration with the Canal & River Trust.
This year we are working in Smethwick, Langley Green, Stourbridge, Tipton, West Bromwich, Wednesbury and Brownhills. Our main partners include the Glass House College Stourbridge, RSA Academy Tipton, Sandwell Community Libraries, the Galton Valley Heritage Centre, the Cradley Heath Creative and the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society.
Juneau Projects, Birmingham-based artists, are leading the Black Country Voyages with a project inspired by nature and its interaction with society. Working closely with members of IYP they will transform the interior and exterior of the boat into a hand-painted archive of people’s ideas of the natural world. This interactive programme will involve workshops, live performances and exhibitions to engage with audiences along the way."


What I plan to do for this placement;

• Create a publication piece (poster/ or leaflet)
• Work with IYP
• Work at the Ikon in the Education Department

What do I want the publication to be?

• I want it to be informative 
• Showcase the work I will be doing with Juneau project and the Ikon.

What do I want to gain from Ikon;

• Further my knowledge of how the Ikon runs the education department
• Give a tour and talk on an artist exhibition

Total hours of worked work experience;

5 hours at Eastside
2 hours and 30 minutes at Ikon.