Evaluation

The Moving Tides Has been a rollercoaster experience. One that shell not be dampened by the unfortunate ending that it came to.

I have learnt so much and gained so many valuable life skills out of this and I think it is very much down to it being a live project. Which began we the terrifying experience of meeting the teachers that were going to help use though the teaching of the children. Unfortunately the teachers that I meat were not the year 6 teachers and this did hinder the organizing of some of the lessons checking with supplies lessons plans as I hadn’t got a direct contact with a year 6 teacher.

The research into carnivals really made me realize that it is as much the journey that the costumes take to be in the carnival as it is the final out come on procession day. I research that helped and influenced me the most was into the different carnivals held and Rio’s carnival really took my eye as the colours were so blocked I really took this onboard and in my design made sure that it was as much purple as possible as I wanted the same effect as this in Radipoles section of the procession.

In the designing of the costumes I I really wanted to experiment with all the different elements of shrimps which I think you can see in my other designs I really enjoyed the one with the tail but as this was something that would not been seen from the front as much deified to go with more of the legs as these could be seen from both front and back and have more of an impact. Seeing costumes from previous years also really helped me come up with ideas and this is really where adding the height to the costume with the eyes and antennas came from. I had this vision of in the distance just seeing bobbing eyes coming through the crowd and as you get closer to the costumes you then get to see what they are.

Budgeting was something I was not familiar with and I think something that I struggled with the most remembering to add VAT and the packaging to the final amount really confused my at times but in the end I got there. Also thinking of everything you needed and how much of everything took time but in the end I stuck to my budget really well and I feel now I have done it once i=I would defiantly be able to take this skill forward onto other projects in the future.

Lesson planning was a very carefully planed thing as parts of the costume needed to be finished and dry to more on to the next  and after my third lesson I needed all of the components of the costumes to be finished for me to take them home and construct the back packs. After getting it right my plasterzote did not arrive on time so I had to rearrange the first lesson. I feel this was handled well and my lessons still worked out well even though at sertan points I was carrying large amount of items on the train at points but it was defiantly worth it.

Preparation for the lessons was very repetitive but this just came with the number of costumes we were constructing. Venturing into the workshop to the spray paint room was really interesting and not half as intimidating as I thought and I think I will try and use these facility more and asking for help is always necessary in there I feel I have overcome my fear of this place and with be venturing further than our dye room in future.

Over all my lessons went really well seeing how much the children enjoyed the finished peace was amazing. These lessons have helped me become more organized and understanding how a classroom works. The lessons have also made me realize that I do want to go into teaching when I am older not straight after Uni but one day I think I would really enjoy it. I think what made my lessons more of a challenge would be the number of children I had. The 60 children to kept entertained was at times a struggle and to keep and eye on every one was also hard I felt I had one class room under controlee everyone was happy and know what they were doing and then having to rush and sort the other one out by the time I had finished this the first class was getting restells again. Some times I did feel like a yoyo. The traveling to and from the school however with the amount of things you have to carry sometimes did seem really impractical but memorable experience.

It was such a shame the actual day got canceled as I hadn’t had chance to see the costumes on the children which is really disappointing and something I feel I have really missed out on. The dissition was the right one to cancel even though everyone put so much hard work into the costumes but hopefully we will see them in September. I would just like to take this opportunity to say thank-you to the teachers that have helped me along the way and to all the children for putting in all the hard work to make the costumes it would not have been possible with out them. 

Visits after my lessons

I have done two further visits to Radipole school after my lessons the one was to finish tying on the straps to the back packs this needed to be done because the children needed to practice there dance with them on. But I also went on the 10th of july to make sure the costumes were all ready for the carnival and if anything needed changing or fixing also I dropped off the three dance leader costumes as well for the school to take down the following day.

I was so please with the costumes and so existed to see them on a child as I still have not yet seen the costumes on yet. this was not possible on either visits as the children were unavailable both days which was such a shame.

My fourth lesson

My final lesson. After finally getting all 30 of the shrimp back packs to the school the only things left to do now was to put the painted yellow spots on the legs from last lesson, paint the eyes and attach the straps.

After showing the class the shrimps. I think they were all amazed to see what they and been working on all come together as I think some of them had forgotten what we were working towards as it was over a month ago when I brought my prototype in to show them. The fist activity I showed the children to do was sticking on the spots to the legs. this needed a diagram the show where I wanted them exactly  and several demonstrations as it kept on going wrong. As they were finishing I got out paint for them to start painting the eyes and this started to make the creatures come alive. When they started to finish doing this I started to demonstraight how to put the straps on after 3 of the children trying and failing to do this and it was starting to creep to the end of the lesson I decided that the children could not manage to push the cotton tape through the corex and I would have to come back and do this in my own time.

This was really disappointing as they could not try the back packs on which was such a let down but hopefully after next week they will. It was such a let down as they were so nearly done I couldn't quite finish them.

My third lesson

In this lesson I was going to be more organised with the way the class was going to run today. As soon as I got there I prepared the die buckets with the purple die's. With the help from some of the children we managed to put the T-shirts in everyones place so it was ready for them to come and start the next bit of tie dye after I had explained what to do. I felt I had a lot to fit in today as it all needs to be finished so I can take it all home and make the back packs for next lesson.

To start off the lesson I explained what to do next in the tie dye they all seemed to get on really well this this and like before to them with groups of about 6 to the buckets for them to dye. after this they had to options with what they could do finish off the rapping of wire and centrecane or painting the yellow spots to go onto the legs. When the children got distracted I would change what they were doing and towards the end of the lesson we even had some of the children rinsing out the T-shirts ready to hang out side to dry again. this helped me and the other teachers out as it meant we didnt have to stay  behind later to do this. 

All in all this lesson went so much smoother than the last and I feel like I have more time to breath and really enjoy the lessons and get to know the children more. As before I felt like I has running round from class to class and only really having chance to helping the children that asked for it. But today I felt like I had got into a little rhythm and really understanding how the teaching worked. Everything got finished but the end of the day and I was able to take everything home on the train. 

Now to start making the backpacks 

My second lesson

For this lesson I went with T-shirts for the children to tie dye and the wire and centercane with the purple netting to be rapped round them.

The Teachers had brout another 30 T-shirts so all the children in the class could tie dye there own T-shirt. S o the first thing we did was have the children line up out side and name all the T-shirts so we know who's is who's. Then I sat them down and demonstrated how to rap marbles and peaces of plastic that I had brout with me tightly with string enfersizing the tighter it is the better they will turn out.

Ater see that the children were not really tying the string well enough I thought elastic bands would be better so we got elastic bands and the children seemed to be tying them better. After the children were happily tying there T-shirts up I went to sort out the dying buckets and started to prepare my self. I took small groups of about 6 to the dye buckets and explained what dye I used and how I use soda ash to hold the colour and how it is not salt which is used in hot walter dyes and salt only desolves with hot water and not cold. The the children put there tied T-shirts into the buckets they al found this the best bit and were all very existed to sutra.

After getting all the T-sherts in the buckets for just after 2 that means they have about an hour to soke in the colour.

Next was to rap the wire and centercane after demonstrating this and asking if they could all get into pares my plan seemed to start to fall apart the neat bundles I had made were not sticking together and after about 20mins of the exercise the children were starting to get bored and there was wire and centercane randomly on the floor I was worried about this as I had used all the wire and centercane to make these there were no spare peaces incase some got lost. as it got closer to 3.10 I knew I had made a mistake as the children all seemed to be getting distracted and irritated as they could not rap the netting round neatly also they had no urgency to get them finished.

At the end of the lesson I had 3/4 of the wire and centercane rapped. They were not all perfect and I was sure some of them would have to be touched up next lesson, but I was pleased that I had the majority done. I stayed late to help rinse out the T-shirts and hug them to dry over night so they will be ready for tomorrow.

This lesson tourt me a lot as I think if I had had a rotation of activities on the children would have enjoyed it much more and there attention span wouldn't have wondered as it did. For next lesson I will have finishing of the rapping painting the spots as a rotation.

My first Lesson

The first lesson was a wearl wind really. A defiant learning curve that was full with 60 existed children.   My first lesson was paper mashaing the balloons and as I got to the school I meat the year 6 teachers who I had not meat before I was shown to the class rooms and started to set up my sections giving each child a ballon making sure there was enough news paper on each table and making a OPVA mix for the children to use.

as the children filled in from lunch all existed and asking lots of questions I was introduced as Miss Ellen. With both classes assembled sat cross legged in front of me I put my powerpoint on that I had prepared to show the children of selected pages out of my sketch book that had influenced and helped shap the design. And then I reveled the costume. this went down extremely well they were all asking to try it on and perad around the room in it. I was so relieved that the costume had gone down well the the children and the colour was not a problem I thought maybe some of the boys might have more of a problem with that but everything seemed fine.

As I demonstrated how big to blow up the ballon and what was the best way to paper masha them it all seemed less intimidating and I felt my self ease more into the teaching role. As they all went and sat down at there seats and started to blow up the balloons I was unprepared for the calling on my name that seemed to escalate to see if the ballon they were blowing up was the right size after more demonstrating and a lot of tying of the balloons we had 60 fairly similar sized balloons to start the papper mashaing.

As I was going round the first class checking on them helping them out to make sure everyone was happy with what they were doing I realised that there was another 30 children working in the other classroom for me to check on as well. As I was finishing checking on this classroom I had children form the other coming in saying they were finished. This shocked me as it was only about 2.30 so hurried back into see how this child was doing. On closer inspection more layers were needed but once one person had said they were finished they all thought they were finished (when they hadn't they just didn't want to be left behind)

At 3.00pm in one classroom I had children finishing off there balloons and in the other I had children where you could still see they majority of there balloons it was very stressfull. So the children didn't get bored as some had now moved on to helping there friends and were also coming to the end of that, I asked the teacher to pack away with them and if they had any other work or reading they could do for the last 10minis of the class wile I was next door franticly trying to get atlees two layers of papper masha done on some of there balloons.

When 3.15 came and the children had packed away and the cleaners were coming in to clean away the debery of my class I could breath. I had defiantly not been prepared for the rush, excitement, adrenalin and a little bit of stress thrown in for good mesher that had come from that lesson. I put all the balloons on the window sills to dry and thanked the teachers for there help on the afternoon.

The hole day had been so fun but also one massive learning curve. Even though the blown up balloons would have been more hassle to carry in I do think that I would have got more even sized eyes to work with. How ever many times you show some of the boys how to paper masha a strip at a time using a paint brush they will always be one who will try and put a hole sheet of news paper onto there ballon in one go and refuse to use nothing but there hands as a paint brush.

Over all I was pleased with the out come and I think we did achieve 60 useable paper masha eyes, which was the aim of the day. It's such a shame that I have to weeks to wait for my next lesson as its on the 23rd May