Aughnacloy P.S. teacher journal

When everything comes together…

We are now at stage 11 in our Virtually there journey and I think to myself…where did that time go? I also am amazed at how much we have managed to get fitted into our sessions and the variety of activities P2 and 3 have had the opportunity to experience, from their leaf tattoos to sketching and tie-dyeing. It has been lovely to see their confidence grow when speaking to Lisa online and how their creativity has really opened up. They really have amazed me in what they have been able to do. I really do think that some of their recent hand sketching could pass for G.C.S.E Art! I am super proud of P2 and 3 and everything we have accomplished on this journey. Over the past few sessions all of the different strands of the ideas Lisa and I had at the very beginning have been coming together and it has been lovely to watch this project grow into a whole celebration of creativity. We are very excited about filming our dances!

Sometimes as teachers, we expect children to be creative when we ourselves may feel lacking in creativity. Children can teach us a lot about creativity. They aren’t afraid to make mistakes. They are excited and enthused to have a go. I often think back to Lisa’s first visit with us when she told us she was a dance artist. My initial thought? What will our end product be…a thought many teachers have. Lisa through our last 7 art sessions though has taught me that sometimes, life is more about the journey, rather than the destination. Whilst we, as teachers have deadlines to meet and evidence to show, Lisa has taught me to take a step back, to slow things down and to enjoy the little things. Time is often precious for teachers and we like to rush things on. Lisa has taught us in P2 and 3 to take time to explore, to experiment, to describe, create and appreciate.

It has been an absolute joy to see the children take our creative dance project with Lisa onboard, to be so engrossed in their movements and so focused that nothing else can distract them. Each dance group has a story to tell about nature, growth and re-growth, even deforestation sneaks in. We have explored our senses, forested outside and experimented with colour and mark making. Recently I was fortunate enough to be invited to an Assembly Gathering event in Belfast. An event where women with natural creative minds could meet, work, chat and inspire. We had the wonderful opportunity to work with Colour and Cloth to dye silk scarves with natural forested materials, a gifted idea for our art project. Today, we forested for buds, mud, flowers, grass, ivy and berries to create colour and marks on paper, this will lead to us dyeing scarves with our forested goodies to add to our dance…along with our leaf tattoos of course!

The lesson learnt? It’s important that we all take a little time to explore our own creativity.

I’m very excited to be working with Kids’ Own for the very first time! We are very fortunate to be involved in this project and are the first school in Northern Ireland to be involved with a dance artist, Ms Lisa Cahill from Cork. Lisa is a very talented dance artist and we really enjoying working with her in our first art lesson online. P2 and 3 are simply amazed that Lisa can talk to us and work with us in our classroom on our interactive whiteboard when she is in Cork and we are in Aughnacloy. We have really enjoyed our first lesson based on the senses and leaves. The pastel leaf tattoos were definitely a hit! We are very much looking forward to working with Lisa over the next few months!

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