Teacher workshop on incorporating art as a teaching tool

A workshop titled Articulate was co-organised by Pitambar and Rising Sun Publishing Company for art teachers of Delhi-NCR at thr India International Centre on 17 August 2019. The Indian School was represented at the conclave by Head of its Art department, Ms Garima Singh.

The chief resource person, Ms Aditi Misra, Principal, Delhi Public School, Gurgaon, set the tone of the morning with her statement Everyone cannot be an artist. But everyone can and must develop an appreciation of Art.

The workshop laid stress on the importance of art in education and on the need to integrate it into the teaching of other subjects. Simple, effective techniques of art were introduced, according to the varying stages of children, from scribbles to the schematic stage.

Correspondingly, a variety of strategies were discussed in order to involve more and more children in activities related to art.

One of the strategies recommends challenging the students to interpret basic shapes on their own, for instance, compositions with circles of random sizes. The teacher couldask the children to extend and complete the drawing converting those circles as umbrellas, flowers or even Mandala art. Likewise, other geometric shapes, forms or Tangram blocks could be given to form a pattern or tessellations.

The session saw two highly efficient resource persons, Ms Madhumita Nandi and Ms BhawnaSrivastava, art teachers of DPS, Gurgaon showcase novel ideas to make classroom learning more enjoyable and creative. They reiterated the need for developing childrens artistic abilities by encouraging them to express themselves without a fear of being judged.

The gathering brainstormed on encouraging the mind to take wing-illustrations used were What if you could make something invisible? What if water could fly, etc. These activitiesencourage students to visualise and build interesting stories. The primary classes could be given a free wall to paint their impressions and explore colour mixing.

The highly interesting and interactive workshop served as a beacon to new age teachers who seek to create innovative classrooms. It provided a forum for an exchange of out of box ideas and for sharing classroom experiences.

In the end, those present received a complementary sample of Articulate- a series of thirteen books on art prepared by the organising publication.