Old school work.

Was organizing the mountain of paper and whatsits at home and found these. An art project from my junior high students and some get-well cards from my elementary students. These junior high students are probably junior university students now, maybe seniors. Still, their work reminded me of days where the misfits were kings in class. Their shy smile from the sincere appreciation I gave their work spoke volumes.

Just for those moments, when I see these kids on Facebook and hear of their current exploits,
reminds me why I do what I do. Regardless of place, management, or circumstance.

Teaching graphic design in Poveda?

A dear friend invited me to speak at the San Pedro de Poveda School last June 5. I was lucky enough to have been chosen for the task. It was a workshop for the school's club moderators who needed ideas in setting up a graphic design group for the students.

Now, I'm not an expert in graphic design, but I've tried teaching it to high school students in the past and the experience helped set up the framework for the talk. But as the afternoon wore on, I realized my message wasn't just about design, but advocating art as a method of teaching and learning. Since my audience were primarily academic teachers, I wanted to share how you could use different methods in planning and implementing a lesson.

It was an interesting experience. I got to see an old family friend, and saw the inside of a school I normally would pass by on EDSA. Plus, my wedges were killing my by the end of the afternoon. Still, Friday's was within walking distance, and relaxing over a Coke and lime was good way to end the day.

Old exhibit photos SY 2009-2010

Didn't realize that I had a treasure trove of photos on my Facebook account. Still, looking at the pictures, I regret not taking more. It was a fun ride, finishing up the grades of more than a hundred students, telling them to submit, submit, submit! And who can forget the simple jokes a 1st grader would share with you and you just have to laugh...yep. Those days were fun.

Posting stenciled art work

Back to Tagaytay for another round of training. This time, with Grade 7 MAPEH teachers.

We had a cozy number of about 200+ teachers in the room, all from different schools in the Philippines. It was more intensive than the last workshop. The food was better too! :)

To be honest, I appreciated the schedule they gave us this time. It felt less hurried and we had more time to interact, talk and coach the participants.

Tattoo designs on cups 

Assemblage 

Weaving workshop

K-12 Teacher Training Workshop @ DAP, Tagaytay

Teacher trainers working their magic.

Group shots of trainers from different regions.

Demo teachers!End of April 2012.

We had 1,500+ Grade 1 teachers from all over the Philippines to be trained on how to teach the new K-12 curriculum. We were Mrs. P as the convener, one veteran art teacher, two art curriculum writers and myself as the National Teacher Trainers for Art.

One whole week of sharing, laughing, speaking, teaching and having a fun. It was also a frustrating, hair-pulling, more-than-words-can-say kind of anger at times but it was worth it.

I would never claim to say that the workshop participants learned a lot from us and they would move on to greater and amazing art classes in the future but as in any class, you have high hopes for a chosen few with whom you felt understood what you were saying and you hoped they learned from the experience. To be honest, this was the biggest workshop I've ever helped facilitate. EVER. And to have a handful of them echo the workshop perfectly to other teachers in their region is a possibility and I'm hopeful.

If you're reading this and you are a teacher, you might want to visit our Facebok pages and download the K-12 Art Curriculum for Grade 1 and Grade 7 for FREE!! Yes, please don't be fooled into buying books for your Grade 1 or Grade 7 art classes. You can download it there, use it and hopefully, send us your pictures and feedback when you can.

https://www.facebook.com/ArtPhilippinesForGrade1

https://www.facebook.com/ArtPhilippinesForGrade7