Students Partake in Creative Print Work Shops!

Identity Card

@thankyounaii By Anaiah Angelique Casimir

Our theme this week of summer school is identity and what makes up who you are. On our first day back, students started with mind maps and draft paragraphs breaking down parts of their identity. I had an idea to incorporate print and mixed media approaches to create unique identity cards. In my practice, I’ve worked with many forms of printing, such as lino print, screen print, monoprint, etching etc. During this class, I decided that the most simplistic way of printing that would be quick and easy was cardboard printing. We discussed which part of our identity we wanted to focus on. The children went on to drawing that part of their identity onto cardboard and then cut it out before sticking the cardboard image onto another piece of cardboard.

As we waited for the cardboard to dry, they started decorating the piece of paper they were going to print on with pencils and oil pastels. After some time, they use acrylic paints and rollers to cover their cardboard stencil and print on top of their piece of paper. I wanted the children to do this task to gain some more understanding of the practical skills of art, composition and design, as well as have a physical piece of work representing themselves.

As a young leader, I have developed skills such as class management, the importance of independence and building relationships in a community. The transition from student to young leader gave me a lot of responsibility. I’ve learned proper safeguarding rules and regulations; I’ve also learned lesson planning and class management.

One of the biggest challenges of working with young people, in my opinion, is patience, however I believe that patience is a virtue. One of my favourite parts about this job is being able to transfer skills I've learnt from my job as an art assistant teacher, and bringing my usual class structure and my practice into our classrooms. My favourite part of an average summer school day is English and break times, mainly because I love creative writing and discussing student’s hobbies during breaks.