Teachers spend school holidays working on art

Recently we’ve been devoting a lot of airtime to show viewers the multitude of activities being organised for children during the summer. Today, however, News Five’s Alyssa Noble visited St. John’s College and found that it’s not only the students who are keeping busy during the school holidays.

Alyssa Noble, Reporting
It?s the fifth year the two week intensive art course is being offered, but it?s the first time that district teachers were invited to participate. And while the turnout was less than expected, Michele Perdomo says that didn?t stop these teachers from appreciating the value of art.

Michele Perdomo, Art Teacher, St. John?s College
?We try to really, really keep everything very colourful, very exciting so the children want to go to school. Because so many of our kids hate going to school, it?s so boring!! And if we had more singing, more visual arts and more drama, the children would look forward to coming to school and that?s the thing. And at the same time that they are having fun, they are developing important skills: observation, imagination, creativity, neatness and cooperation. It has a spill over into other areas of math, of English and of history. So it really has a wonderful carry over from one subject to the other.?

Perdomo says that you don?t need to look far to make beautiful works of art.

Michele Perdomo
?We call it rock, paper, scissors, glue, after the childhood game, because we have tried to keep the materials very simple so that every teacher can afford to do it in a classroom. It?s just a matter of colour paper, scissors, glue and all kinds of recyclable materials, that they can find either in the outdoors, in the environment, like rocks or that they can recycle from the kitchen: like eggshells, paper rolls, toilet paper rolls, Styrofoam trays and all kinds of materials that they would have readily available to them. Even old paper back books, we turn them into angels.?

According to the teachers, art is an important part of the curriculum.

Elizabeth Garbutt, St. Joseph Anglican Preschool, Punta Gorda
?It helps them, it boosts them up. They can easily relate to what I?ve taught them, it helps them to remember. They can recall from the arts we?ve done in the classroom.?

Adrian Chi, August Pine Ridge R.C. School, Orange Walk
?It enhances the children to use their hands, their minds, their talents, their creativity, imagination and all of that. The basic things that are found in their homes and they get it done in the class.?

And for the sceptical teachers out there…

Elizabeth Garbutt
?Come and join the art programme, they should try it. It?s very interesting and they?ll learn a lot.?

Adrian Chi
?I would definitely encourage them to take an art course. So that when they go back there they know what to do, just to enhance their learning. So that they themselves and the children are going to have a lot of fun in the classroom.?

Alyssa Noble reporting for News Five.

In related news St. John’s College is also offering adult art classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights from five thirty to seven thirty. If you are interested in signing up please call 223-3731.