Coral Reef Adventure @ IMAX

Coral Reef Adventure @ IMAX

I've been wanting to go diving since like forever yet refused to just go with anybody as my diving kakis are either not diving liao or 各分东西 liao.... ='(.... 


so was super excited when i received the email from science centre inviting teachers to watch the 'Coral Reef Adventure' at the Omni theatre for free ....=D

gigantic screen that envelop everyone in

teachers streaming in in groups of 2 to 4....just like groups of friends going for a movie.... whereas, i was forever alone....i was the only one who had signed up from my school 

the show was so good that i was grinning from ear to ear as i watched the school of fishes swim by, the beautiful corals, the unique relationship between the organisms living among the corals... was also saddened by the fact that coral reefs are being destroyed by pollution, ocean warming and overfishing.... =( 

super cool video right??? this is only part 1 of 4 parts... it's even more awesome in the IMAX theatre where the images envelop you and you are like observing the fishes and the corals in a glass submarine la.... 

i was so captivated by the once familiar underwater world that i immediately text Mabel, who will be going for her diving theory and pool session in 2 weeks time, to ask her if i can join her if she's going for any open water dive after her course.... =D... it has been 5 years in this school and it was the first time i ever initiated any outing with a colleague.... Mab is not counted as a colleague though we used to teach in the same school....  

after the show, teachers were invited to a 30 minutes lesson on coral reefs 

learnt a plentiful during the lesson 

din know that abalone shell looks like this.... and because of the holes, it is also called 七孔鱼 (7 holes fish).... 

also learnt that bull shark's teeth are serrated (saw-edged)....look closely at the edges...pain siah.....

and though i already knew that sharks have many many layers of teeth, it still amazed me to actually observe one closely...and to find out that a bull shark can have up to 50 layers of teeth and that at any point of time, they can have 3000 teeth in their mouth.... amazing right???? 

a new row of teeth will 'rotate' out to replace the old one which are damaged or shed....yes, sharks shed their teeth.... and tooth replacement can occur as frequent as 10 - 14 days during summer (feeding time) and every one or two months during the winter (dieting time)..... 

another interesting thing that was shared during the lesson was that Alpheid shrimps are great diggers who constantly create homes (burrows) in the sea beds using their large claws. However, they are also visually impaired and often cannot spot their predators until it's too late... On the other hand, the goby fish are small vigilant fish that forms a mutualism relationship with the shrimp and act as the shrimps' bodyguard against predators, in exchange for a stay in the shrimp's burrow.... =) .....good neighbours siah!!!

the last part of the lesson was on scuba....din know that it's an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus......

great memories lo...... still remember chunyang and ah beng showing me the 'out of air' sign like ALL THE TIME during all our past dives .... wahahaha.... 

I REALLY WANNA GO DIVING!!!

WHY MR ANG NO WANNA LEARN DIVING??? 

Haul 2

Haul 2

since i rediscovered bugis street last holiday (see here), where else to head to for shopping when i'm in the mood to shop leh??? 


but to my disappointment, bugis street was very quiet on monday afternoon during the march school holiday.... and it was worse at level 2 and worst at level 3.... =(.... i m the kind who needs to be in the mood to shop.... i like to shop when they are many shoppers around (but not those packed till cannot walk one la) so that the sale ladies wun pay any attention to me while i look look see see on my own.... 

but thinking on the bright side, i spent less....heee..... 

this was the first piece that i bought... cost $12.... 
great that it's long enough for work... =) 

but this material abit difficult to iron....too stiff... can washing it another round and adding more softlan make it less stiff???

this $10 owl tee caught my attention .... 

luv the 2 big pockets at the side...=).... 

in the shop i went and out i came with 2 tops.... heeee....the blue top below is $15....

another blouse for school....=)...yippy!!!

and the last piece is a striking pink blouse at $12..

total brought 4 pieces (only) which totalled up to $49.... =) 

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top is 2 for $25, shorts is 2 for $30... both from cotton on....

this cotton on ah...all basic tops and pants must be sold in 2, 2, 2, so always end up with 2 of everything that i buy....this is the other set... 

$8 tank top from giordano... but need to buy 5 to enjoy this low low price.... so angela bought 4 and i bought the yellow one above.... =)

chanced upon this shop @ cineleisure....$2 a bottle and buy one get one free...wahahaha.....

really not bad leh.... cos it's the 5th day liao and most of the polish is still on.....=D

A is for Art 2012 - Day 2 of workshop

A is for Art 2012 - Day 2 of workshop

Started the day with a round robin of what was done the day before and our took away.... i would say that the camp opened my eyes to the link between art and the things around us, specifically historical artefacts.... 


always hear the saying "Art is everywhere"...i agree.... it's just how arty people look at the things in the environment and drew inspirations from it....the problem i face is --> being a non-arty person, i will take everything at their face value unless it's explicitly shown to me, just like how it was done at the camp... i'm so thankful to the team of people who put in so much effort and resources to 'enlighten' us through this camp..... =D


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the few of us in Dongson group were split into 3 smaller groups. Each of these smaller groups is allocated an artefact under the 'textures' theme to plan an activity for the rest of the members within 10 minutes... 

My mini group was allocated the Quan Am

we conducted an activity termed as 'blind drawing'. Participants were placed back facing the statue and they were to sketch the Quan Am based on the descriptions read out. The following questions were provided to guide the describer...

(1) Which position is the statue in?

(2) How many hands are there and their positions?

(3) Describe the head gear.

(4) Describe the facial feature.

(5) Describe the type of clothing. 

The purpose of having the questions is to guide the describer to give a more complete description of the statue to those who were sketching... 


After the sketch was done, participants then compared their drawings to the actual artefact and observed the statue more proximately... areas such as the colour, wear & tear, material, history of the artefact were discussed during this time too... 


the other 2 groups conducted Q & A sessions regarding their artefacts... which at any one point of time, either the facilitator was asking a question or a participant was answering while the rest (me) may or may not be engaged.... comparatively, our 'blind drawing' activity had everyone engaged and it also provided a reason for the participants to examine the artefact closely during the comparison section... =) 
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one of our homework for the first day was to collect pictures of chairs and these were what caught my attention while doing my 'homework'.... 

          (my favourite of the 3)

these pictures, together with the homework of others, were used as inspiration for our final art challenge....

but before we embarked on it, we had some tuning in activities on 'chairs'

(1) making human chairs..... we had to 'create' a chair with 6 ppl, then 5 ppl, then 4 ppl, then 3ppl, then 2 ppl and finally 1 person.... 

4 human chair

one of the teachers testing out the 2 human chair.... 

and finally, with all members in one straight row, each of us have to create a one person chair that represented us....

imagine me sitting on the floor, crossed legged like this below but with curved arms 

personally, i do not like this activity as i do not see the relevance between this activity and the final art challenge... 

(2) after creating a chair with our body parts, we were told to sketch a chair that could represent us.... =(.....always hate the part where i have to draw..... 

anyway, i like a chair that is big enough for me to sit cross legged on it....the back and sides must be high enough for me to feel cuddled when i m sitting on it.... the rectangle to the right is a table for me to put everything that i need (remote control/a cup of water etc) so that i do not need to move out of the seat unnecessarily... =D.... 

and i want my seat to be in a single bright colour..... just like the idea of it being very outstanding and eye-catching though i'm not someone that likes to be in the limelight.... 

 these are from the other teachers.... 

i really think that i'm damn thick skin lo....why leh???? cos though i know my drawing are super horrendous, i'm still signing up for as many art workshops and courses as possible... and in the process, create 'platforms' for my artworks to be displaced next to all these  pros one lo....=S

(3) making a chair prototype with straws and no vocal

create a chair with approx 35 straws, tapes and scissors and no verbal communication was allowed within 10 minutes and this was what we made 

it was a fun challenge with lots of giggling and appreciate the fact that members took the initiative to be the leader and got everyone started. We were all quite lost in the beginning as we were not allowed to have any verbal communication... =( 

given the short duration of only ten minutes, our main focus was making a seat, stabilizing it and creating some textured designs as deco

although a mock up is good before the final challenge, but using straws or any other materials that are eventually not used in the final artwork makes this activity a little redundant.... 

initially planned to modify this activity from using straws to using jumping clay but after some discussion, most probably we could use the actual material that we planned to use to do a miniature chair instead

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finally, our 'stool' arrive

but it turned out to be a table (looks like it's something from ikea).... it's really an art challenge lo.... the challenge is to turn this table into a VIP seat within 3 hours..... 

we decided on a garden theme since it will be placed in the outdoor and immediately got to work

talented duo designing the chair's backrest with inspiration from the jali screen and this is what they created

talented artist working hard on the seat itself 

i love the quote...

to me, it says....HAVE FAITH...=) 

so how did an untalented me contribute leh???

well, i helped to paint the 'stool' yellow and i made a few of this flower below... 

with these 3 teachers

super tedious to attach the beads one by one onto the Styrofoam hemisphere and to attach the wires to the back with uhu glue...

conclusion, would not be using such small items in the school art challenge.... though it looked delicate when stand alone and many of the camp participants liked it alot , it's way too much effort 

the last touch up before the gallery walk

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Presenting all the chairs

my favourite!!!!

the theme on 'composite' creatures is super obvious and the striking colours made it very outstanding... 

most probably, i will lead our pupils towards this direction for our art challenge... ;P

the Dongson group with our chair

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ended the day with a word - "ACHING"

i was aching all over from having to work on the floor the whole day... =( 

but am still excited over the whole art challenge and really looking forward to leading a team (Professional Learning Team) of teachers to plan and execute this program for the pupils.... =) 

a notebook from ACM to end the workshop... =) 

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Day 1 can be found here... 

will be detailing everything about the art challenge in this blog cos teachers' planning, execution, journal & reflection is part of the criteria that makes up 40% of the total score.... =S 

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A is for Art 2012 - Day 1 of workshop

Attended Part 1 of A is for Art 2012 preview earlier in feb....Part 2 of A is for Art 2012 is a one and a half day art camp held on 26 and 27 march, focusing on teaching art through artefacts in the Asian Civilisations Museum

Lots and lots of hands-on, reflections, discussions and journaling during this camp....though tiring to the max and was suffering from very bad body ache from sitting on the floor for most part of day 2, I am glad I had signed up for it. I have the confidence that what i had learnt in this camp and the activities which we had to plan for our pupils will develop me further as an art teacher..... hurray to completing another step in becoming a qualified art teacher... =) 

Gonna share some of the activities which we did on Day 1 of the camp and my take-away from them... =) 

The opening of the camp was conducted like a classroom lesson with the 'tuning in' activity described below:

Art Game 1 - Blow Wind Blow the colours

Each player was assigned a colour (red,blue or yellow). If the 'pasan' person calls out a primary colour, then players assigned to that colour will have to change their positions and the last person to get into position will be the next 'pasan' person... 

and if the person calls out a secondary colour, players assigned with either one of the 2 primary colours that makes up this secondary colour will have to change positions and the last person to get into position will be the next 'pasan' person... 

This game can be used as a tuning in activity or extended to consolidate an art lesson on primary, secondary, warm or cool colours too. I think it will be a good assessment tool to check on pupils' understanding of the different categories of colours informally. 

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Then the 50 or so teachers who had signed up for the camp were divided into 5 smaller groups. I was in group DONG SON with Ain and our facilitators were Victoria and Jannah. 

We were each given a teacher's manual 

The first activity which the facilitators brought us through was journalling on why we became art teachers. Round robin was used to get all of us to share our thoughts.... most shared about their passion in art and teaching and hence became art teachers and a few others were in the same situation as me....we were thrown the position of the art coordinator without having any background in art.... but all had grown to love art..... i am so glad i am not alone..... =) 

i shared on how i was just thrown the position of the art coordinator because 'someone' saw that i did craft with my class and thought that i like art...i also shared that i prefer the planning of art curriculum and school base art programs more to the actual doing of art... 

But while i m doing this recall and reflection, it incurred to me that though i had always said that it was not my choice to be an art coordinator but i am grateful to the one who saw my "potential" in this area. I guess eventually it is indeed my choice to do my best as an art coordinator and it is indeed my choice to want to learn more about art and the teaching of art so that i can share whatever i had learnt with my pupils and apply whatever i had learnt to make learning art more enjoyable for the pupils and also to make teaching art more inclusive and less stressful, especially for the non-art trained teachers and finally, it is indeed my choice to make art the centre of my career.... 

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All the teachers were very happy when we were told that each school would be provided with 6 sets of art cards which featured the selected artefacts. With the art cards, pupils can play matching games which improves their observation skills. We can also play "blind matching" where a pupil describes a card in detail and the rest of the pupils have to decide which artefact is the card matched to. 

And in times where it's impossible to bring all the pupils to the museum due to budget constraints or any other reasons, these art cards will be a great help in bringing the 'artefacts' to the pupils. 

Victoria shared with us an activity which could bring about community building. A large piece of printed artwork can be cut into smaller pieces. Each smaller piece is then given to different pupils to examine closely and to duplicate as a sketch. After which, piece all the sketches together to form the big picture. This activity can be used to emphasize that each and everyone of us plays a crucial part in the community, in school, in class and in any social settings that we may be in. I see this as a great class bonding activity.. =) 

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Victoria and Jannah then introduced the 4 art themes in the teachers' manual and brought us into the galleries to view the featured artefacts ... due to time constraints, we were unable to view all the artefacts...below are some write-ups on the artefacts which we focused on...

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Quan Am

the last artefact which we saw was the Huqqa, an equipment used for smoking tobacco in the past... 

we were given 5 minutes to sketch it and this is what i produced....

damn chui!!!.... wahahahha.....

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Osa Osa

Makara

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Dong Son Drum - which is my group name ... =) .... 

close up on the skirt with designs made with cowrie shells

from sec 1 or 2 history lesson, we learnt that cowrie shells were used as a form of money in the past... so these long ago people actually sewed money onto their clothing....interesting.... so is it similar to the idea of using gold threads and gems on clothings nowadays or is it more to this one below leh... wahahaha... 

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We were then given an hour after lunch to plan an art challenge based on any of the 4 themes. Our group decided to do the one on textures, focusing on the Peranakan shoes...

 And this is what we came up with

this activity opened my eyes to the power of having a team of people who likes art to plan for an effective and engaging art lesson for the pupils.... the efficiency amazed me... =) 

it used to be me, myself and I while planning for the art curriculum for all levels for the last 3 years, after this, i'm determined to make it a "ain, aster, mark and i" project..... =P 

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My word to end the day - Excited! 

Learnt a plentiful on Day 1 of the camp.....was eagerly looking forward to what is to be gleaned on Day 2... =)