“The benefits of the visual arts are lifelong. Visual art does not have boundaries. It enables people to play with materials, to express their thinking, to problem solve and make sense of emotions,” Dr Lindsay said.
In line with the quote above I strongly believe that “sharing knowledge is gaining knowledge”. Teaching was never a dream or a wish for me! It all started when I volunteered to facilitate artwork among students, and in that process, I learned a lot. The opportunities gave a whole new perspective to the world of art. I realized that working with students is fun and gives immense joy. Their creative ideas and activities are so spectacular that it always paves the way to learn and discover more.
Visual art helps in the holistic development of a child and it makes them resilient, it is great for problem-solving and understanding the world. It helps us develop our creativity across every aspect of our lives.”
Whenever we attempt to teach something to someone in the process we also learn, to cite an example while handling the stitching activity I have learnt a lot as this subject was very new to me and the patterns presented by the students after the introduction class helped me learn the innovations of this subject and paved way for me to learn something new and that is the beauty of teaching especially the young minds like these.
Visual art is the best way to bring out the imaginary world within. It is a wonderful platform for the students to try their hands on different media and to think out of the box to create more new and unique artworks that they enjoy.
In the visual art classes, students develop a sense of teamwork and also connect with their emotions. The way students understand and the collaboration of sharing knowledge and working together is always fun, relaxing, and more creative, which means learning and enjoying Visual arts. My student Anagha always comes up with very new and innovative art tools and always ensures to share the usage of this with all the students. Also, Akhil is very good with pencil shading and shares his knowledge with his classmates. One way to learn visual arts is to experience them. My classes both offline and online have been pleasant and have been very knowledgeable too. It is a very good opportunity to learn and teach new skills. A few topics covered in this programme like paper weaving, stitching, etc develop the students’ creative skills. The students are thrilled to attend the classes and I always can vouch to say that the curriculum is designed in such a way that it allows students to go and explore various options easily after attending the VA class. The activities are very well planned and involve students’ active participation especially the stitching & paper weaving attracted full attendance.
The lockdown due to the pandemic in certain ways became a blessing in disguise – On one hand, we all had to go through a lot of difficulties as compared to our earlier days and routines. But, on the other hand, it helped us take our creative side to the next level. This was possible with the use of digital media. Working with digital media was new for many of us. And, this led to devoting time more productively towards learning new skills for teaching and accommodating all students across campuses. To talk about this in detail while running the clubs offline my knowledge was harnessed only to the students on our campus but thanks to the online classes which helped me teach & communicate with the students from the other campuses too. This would not have been possible otherwise.
Finally, I would like to conclude by saying that as Visual Art facilitators we are helping students develop emotional, social, and mental skills to interact with the real world efficiently. Art and craft are an excellent way to increment a young child’s ability to problem-solve and analyze in myriad ways. With every stroke of a paintbrush, kids are improving their motor skills. Teaching visual arts to young students has taught me many things and new skills and has always been fun & enjoyable. Looking forward to teaching and learning.
As part of our service learning program, the student council along with some other students had visited the Bannerghatta national park.
The service learning programme is a co curricular activity conducted with students, where they volunteer to better our society, whether that be cleaning lakes or protecting endangered animals.
This year the students of Ekya BTM Layout raised money to adopt animals which were endangered in the bannerghatta national park.
After the donations arrived, the school decided to adopt two animals, an Indian gray wolf and a parrot coming in conscience with the students.
We left the school at 10am and after the one hour long journey made it to the national park. Upon entering we were given ID cards to verify that we indeed were adopters.
We had taken a tour of the entire park, starting with pelicans, seeing various monkeys all the while in a cool, canopy area. We were all intrigued at the previous adopters of animals, some that have been embedded in our brains are that of major corporations, namely Infosys and their contribution to the giraffe habitat.
We made our own path through the forest and saw all the animals, from bears, asian elephants, wolves, wild dogs, various species of birds, hippopotamus and even tigers.
It was a great walk and an even greater experience.
The trip concluded with us meeting the director of the park who had commended us for our programme, educated us as to what we should and should not do when it comes to animals and officially made us the adopters of the animals.
This trip certainly was an eye opener as we got the opportunity and privilege to meet the people responsible in keeping this zoo up and running at a personal level. My mind could now think from the other side rather than just a mere visitor to the park.
I would like to take this opportunity to offer my heartfelt gratitude to our school for creating this platform of giving back to the community through this service learning program.
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