Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Artisan Marketplace

After successfully completing the first Non-Objective Art course with Bianka Guna I am thriving in the second Non-Objective Art course by Bianka as well. I have been working very diligently and have made great efforts to create great works. I developed so many that I entered my work into the Juried Artisan Marketplace last weekend and had some good results. I enjoyed spending time with my fellow Artists and chatting with friends. Here are some of the pieces which I sold.




Monday, November 4, 2013

Abstract Art Results



How wonderful a new idea grows with the proper amount of inspiration!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Non-Objective Art Course which I successfully participated in through Visual Arts Mississauga www.visualartsmississauga.com . The instructor www.BiankaGuna.com
 is phenomenal. She used various teaching techniques to successfully get the point across. It was definitely an experiential learning exercise where Bianka used demonstrations and technology in the studio and she gave every student the opportunity to participate and practice. Her critiques were kind and informative and educational to all of the participants. She is a ‘go to’ person.

Here are some examples of my work.






Sunday, September 29, 2013

Abstract Art





I am taking a course on Non – Objective Art by Bianka Guna at Visual Arts Mississauga and I'm finding it to be very enlightening in that it has opened my eyes to understand what "Abstract Art" is or how to understand Abstract Art and more importantly how to create "Abstract Art." There is a 'science' to it and once you discover it you can use all of your knowledge and ideas to create beautiful pieces. I am embarking on a new voyage with my Art and so far I like it! It can be serene, powerful, complex, multi-layered and more.

The following is a brief review of Abstract Artists' work based on the given websites.


She believes that the piece should not allude to any brush work or any clue to how it was made. The piece of art should be created in one fell swoop so that it all looks apart of each other and together …all made at the same time.


- Painted for Seagram’s

He committed suicide after having dealt with some bad emotional problems.

He used big all encompassing colours that were very powerful usually using very little spaces of white.


He liked to pour the paint onto the enormous surfaces. He tried working on glass and used ‘foreign objects’ such as nails, string, broken glass… He wanted to become a part of the painting so he painted on the floor so that he could walk all around the painting to view it from all angles.


He first used acrylic paint and discovered that different colours of paint had different densities so that certain colours would rise up to the surface and others would recede, making a beautiful flow of colours that any imagination could dream of.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Back to School

Hello and welcome back to my blog at this time of the year again. I will be involved with a Reading Intervention Program at a school as well as continuing to tutor. I look forward to helping students increase their reading ability and fluency through strategic techniques.

Reading is so important that everybody should learn to read especially at a young age. Beginning in Kindergarten students are introduced to reading in various ways through modelled reading, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading. Using the  Dolch Sight Words can help the students read whereby they learn to memorize the words 'by sight.' Once they remember most of these words their reading excels and if their curiosity is piqued they are off to the races. The students' interest in reading must be fueled by encouragement and positive support so that the student will develop a natural enthusiasm to read on their own.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Tutoring!

Life as an Educator brings many opportunities outside of the school. For example, tutoring has been my staple this year with 5 students whom I've been tutoring in English and Mathematics. Over the course of this year and since last year I helped one of my students increase his writing mark by almost 10% to a 79 on his last report card. I'm hoping that this time he will have made it over the hump and achieved an A (80s). I have designed programs specific to the students' needs and learning abilities/styles. Other students are being tutored on class material only and extensions to this. I find it very rewarding and the results are excellent. I have received good feedback. For example, one of the comments from one of my students wrote "Thank you for teaching me all these wonderful things, your enthusiasm is very positive."

Friday, May 31, 2013

Teaching Grade 2!




The year is almost complete with one more month to go. I have been fortunate enough to have been involved in the learning process of many topics with a grade two class. I designed, developed, delivered and assessed while collaborating with the Grade 2 Teacher, lessons and mini units in Language (Verbs, Antonyms, Synonyms, Writing Friendly Letters,  How to Write a Fairy Tale, and 2 Stars and a Wish about fellow classmates’ Fairy Tales), Math (Estimating and Counting Money,  Solving Money Problems using Addition and Subraction), Health (Making Healthy Food choices, making a healthy meal using the 4 food groups, Food at Celebrations, and Safety at Home and at School) and Science (Creating a toy using simple machines). I used techniques which involved multimedia, skits, think-pair-share, brainstorming, group discussions and encouraged inquiry based learning. I also supervised and organized students on a field trip to Heartlake for a 'Water and its Recyclability’ learning experience.


Reading Bees!!





 The Reading Bees Program has been a success. I’ve been working with 4 to 5 students in grade 2 on a regular basis with their reading comprehension and fluency. I have found the most helpful strategies to be chunking, recognizing blends and endings. Also, blocking really helps too! 2 out of the 5 students have increased their level of reading ability by 3 or more levels since November. Even though some of the other students haven’t increased in levelled reading they have more confidence in their reading ability. All in all I can say that it has been and continues to be a success!

A good example of the ambition of some of the students is when Raj (changed the name for privacy) makes immediate connections with the cover of a book and tells me an entire story about he and his family's  adventure when they encountered a similar situation as what he saw in the picture of the cover. I would get lots of details and good inferences about things that could happen if certain things were true. I mean it, Raj has a vast imagination. 

It's been quite a challenge and a pleasure to teach these particular students how to improve their reading.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Investigations and Expressions!

A learning experience blossomed when I spent the day at Bishop Strachan School (BSS) as a teacher on a Professional Development day which brought back many memories as I had once attended BSS in high school. I gained valuable insight to the Reggio Inspired Approach to teaching in the Junior School. Some of the things I picked up on were the idea of the Knowledge Building Circle, the Investigations which develop from the students, the open space concept, very organized space saving and utilizing ideas, the Big Ideas which are used as a thread throughout the curriculum, Earspelling, Integrating Inquiry Based Learning into the Curriculum, Evolving students' ideas, and Performance Based Assessment. The facilitators were excellent as they led the session through an Emergent Project, Tour of the Junior School, Question and Answer session, Panel discussion with current teachers, Review of a Study in a Grade 2 class followed by a reflection period for all of the participants. It was well managed and highly regarded as the new and emerging method of teaching and way of helping the students learn best.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Grade 2 Health and Social Studies- Celebrations!

Where the evermore prevalent theme in today's urban schools is "inclusiveness," I delivered an enlightening lesson about a variety of Celebrations and the Food at which is served and eaten at them to a grade 2 class this week. This was a good opportunity for everyone in the class to learn about other's traditions which are passed from generation to generation as well as to share their own traditions. I used a collaborative Think-Pair-Share strategy to encourage the students to share their celebrations and to talk about the food at which it is served. Then we disscussed the many Celebrations as a group while I recorded their ideas on Anchor Charts. With some help from previous lessons in Social Studies they knew about almost all of the Celebrations I would have liked to have covered except Kwanzaa. It was a successful lesson where I received positive feedback from the Principal.

Please contact me if you would like a copy of the activity which I tried to upload but due to the pics it wasn't possible. The following foods were highlighted:



                                 

Diwali:   Mithai                                               Halloween:   Pumpkin Pie
               Barfi                                                                      Candy

Kwanzaa:    Sweet Potato Pie                         Chinese New Year:  Dumplings
                    Benne Cake                                                                  Fish

Eid:   Savayya                                                 Birthdays:   Cake
          Chicken Tikka                                                           Ice Cream

Chanukah:  Latke                                            Weddings:   Feast
                   Beef Brisket                                                     Personal Tastes

Christmas:   Turkey
                     Eggnog


 Definitions:


Diwali – mithai (sweatmeals) laddoo (flour & sugar & coconut sweet in ball shape), barfi (condensed milk & sugar with fruit flavour like mango or coconut)

Kwanzaa – Sweet Potato Pie, Benne Cake (Sesame cookies), Southern Fried Okra


Eid – Savayya (breakfast of toasted fine vermicelli noodles), Dates, Chicken Tikka, baked masala fish

Chanukah -  Latke ( potato pancakes), Sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), Beef Brisket (roast), Vegetable Kugel (vegetable caserol)

Christmas – Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, eggnog, shortbread

Halloween – Pumpkin Pie, Candy

Chinese New Year – Dumplings, Fish, Prawns

Birthdays – Cake, ice cream, pizza

Weddings -  Feast, Personal Tastes (depending on person’s culture)