Think tank

Dance

Listen to an insightful discussion about engaging students online and revision tips for the HSC Core Appreciation Dance Exam.

Transcript of Think tank – Dance core appreciation

Jackie

The following podcast is brought to you by the Creative Arts Curriculum Team from Secondary Learners Educational Standards Directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education.

That's a fantastic idea. I really imagine that that's a handy way to be using the online platforms and the communication tools that we have in this current environment and really getting them to immerse themselves in the process of planning and writing and all contributing at once. And that really emulates that classroom situation, doesn't it?

Carla

Yeah, for sure. And what I do is we all use the same doc and they can all write on the doc at the same time. So, it's just like being in the classroom, except we're just not face to face. I also remind my students to answer the question and I think that's another big tip. It might seem a little bit silly to say that, but you've got to remind the kids that they have to answer the question and like I said before, the students really need to get to the point and be succinct and not waffle. I also suggest that they be specific with their movement examples, describe in detail and always link it back to the question.

Another task that I do with my kids is I share with them the core appreciation syllabus areas of study, as well as the glossary of words and I get them to create their own essay questions. So, they just, you know, make the links and this is a good way for them to gather more understanding of the syllabus and it allows them then, once they've got the question then, they can create their plan and then potentially extend and write the whole essay from that.

Clare

Some great tips there Carla for the coming weeks. Thank you. And thanks to our wonderful network of teachers for some fabulous ideas there. Okay, let's talk about the actual exam day. Now, what are some last minute tips for the night before or the morning of the exam that we can share with our students?

Carla

So these probably sound pretty obvious, but when you're heading into your dance exam, there's lots of nerves and anxiety is happening. So, I like to remind the kids even though it is sounding obvious, sometimes they might overlook it. But firstly, they need to be prepared obviously and make sure that they're not cramming the night before. If they leave the work or the study to the last minute, then they can be tired and stressed and therefore they're going to feel flustered heading into the exam and they're not going to utilize that five minute reading time appropriately. Another thing is students need to be in a good mental space before they enter the exam and so they need to give themselves plenty of time to arrive and prepare before heading into the exam room. They're making sure that they are getting there maybe 20 minutes or half an hour before the exam to gather their thoughts so that when they do enter the exam, their mind is clear and free of stress. Another thing that I always remind them to do is have a good breakfast or lunch so that their brain can function. You don't want them going in there and being distracted by their grumbling bellies.

Clare

Yeah, that's right. And it's some pretty basic and simple ideas here but it's about getting teenagers to be thinking about these things in the lead up to the exam and just entering those exam situations as calmly and as clear as is possible and that plenty of time before the exam starting. And just that arrival time you talked about is really good, you don't want to be running late on the day of your exam and be stressed out and by the time you get there then you need some time to calm down. So just lots of time and lots of focus and prepare yourself for the exam.

So where now can you direct students for further assistance whilst they're preparing for their exam online, Carla?

Carla

I've sent my kids different links and told them to head to obviously the NESA website where they can go over the syllabus, especially the core appreciation part of the syllabus. I've also encouraged them to have a look at past HSC exam papers and take note of the guidelines to know what was required to answer the question at various levels. I've directed them to the standards material of the written exam paper, which is also on NESA and this allows them to look at some exemplary essays, and obviously sending them to the Bangarra website and the Kylian website so that they can gather some more information on our prescribed work.

Clare

Thanks Carla, such fabulous ideas of tips and tricks leading up to the core appreciation exam, things that we've worked on as dance teachers for many years. But in the environment like we've talked about, it's very different and you really do need to shift your focus and your approach to teaching online. So, there were some fantastic ideas. Thank you very much for that. Thanks for speaking with me today and sharing all those ideas, best wishes for you and your students and all the dance students of New South Wales.

Carla

Hopefully the teachers out there have found these tips useful.

Jackie

This podcast was brought to you by the Creative Arts Curriculum Team of Secondary Learners, Educational Standards Directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes, or email our Creative Arts Curriculum Advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au. The music for this podcast was composed by Alex Manton and audio production by Jason King.

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Drama

In this episode our Creative Arts Curriculum Officer Ravenna Gregory speaks with Belinda Farr-Jones and Jane McDavitt about the drama written exam. Listen to an insightful discussion on engaging students in theatrical experiences to improve their writing for the HSC.

Transcript of Think tank – Drama written exam

Jackie

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Music

In this episode creative arts curriculum officer Alex Manton speaks with Dr Thomas Fienberg from Evans High School and Aboriginal outcomes and partnerships advisor Anthony Galuzzo about Aboriginal perspectives in the music classroom. We discuss various approaches regarding strategies for addressing Aboriginal perspectives in a culturally sensitive way, through the study of a range of resources aimed at improving outcomes for Aboriginal students.

Transcript of Think tank – Aboriginal perspectives in the music classroom

Jackie

The following podcast is brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team from secondary learners educational standards directorate of the New South Wales Department of

Education. As we commence this podcast today, let us acknowledge the traditional custodians of all the lands on which this podcast will be played around New South Wales. Their art, storytelling, music and dance along with all First Nations People hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia. Let us acknowledge with honour and respect our elders, past, present and future, especially those Aboriginal people in our presence today who have and still do guide us with their wisdom.

Alex

Welcome to the Creative Cast podcast series. My name is Alex Manton and I'm a creative arts curriculum officer with the New South Wales Department of Education. The area of discussion today is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the music classroom. As music teachers, how do we approach this in a culturally sensitive way? How can we gain access to relevant resources to integrate into our programs? How can we improve learning outcomes for Aboriginal students and, finally, how can we make the content meaningful for our students today? We'll be talking to music teacher Dr Thomas Fienberg and Mr Anthony Galluzzo, who currently holds the position of K-6 advisor for Aboriginal Outcomes and Partnerships Directorate for the Department of Education.

Where should teachers look for resources?

Tom

I think that in the first place that they should try and look for resources that are directly resources produced by Aboriginal people. There’s an amazing resource that music teachers across the country should be using is one that's Being Prepared, by Jesse Lloyd, and it's the Mission songs project. It's got a fabulous book for choir which people can access, which has all these songs, which Jesse is collected across the country that were written by Aboriginal people who lived in missions and reserves. It's a great resource because it allows teachers to discuss difficult conversations, but also from the perspective of an Aboriginal person who's created the resource. As much as teachers would probably love for me to publish textbook after textbook dealing activities associated with Aboriginal artists. I think that it's great if we can look for resources written by Aboriginal people. And secondly, I think my main resource is the music itself. Just letting the music speak on its own is a great way of teaching and sharing music that might be just playing the songs by some of the Aboriginal artists that we've mentioned today in class listening to the music, embedding it while you're discussing different aspects, Aboriginal musicians operate in all different types of spaces. We've discussed a lot about Aboriginal popular musicians, but within the field of art music, there's many, many, many emerging artists who are releasing music out there and would be great to connect in with, particularly if you're operating in that music two, and music extension space or with students who are really interested in that particular area.

There's a program that's been headed up by a First Nations composer and academic called Christopher Sainsbury and it's called the Ngarra-Burria, which indirectly means to sing into hear and that program supports First Nations composers interested in creating classical music. One person who I've worked with quite closely over the years is Eric Avery. He is an amazing violinist and composer and he had the opportunity to collaborate with Yo-yo Ma. There's a great video out there of him improvising alongside Yo-yo Ma when he came out to Sydney that long ago. But there's so many people who have been involved in that program and I know that ABC classic have published articles and provide information about that program. So, I think that it's definitely something to google if you're thinking about how can I include this? If I'm teaching in a space where we cover a lot of art music, particularly for students heading into that music to pathway.

Alex

That's fantastic, and Anthony, did you have anything to add?

Anthony

Yes. So I suppose the thing that I would like to mention is around and I mentioned before around local content, some of our elders will deliver their welcomes to country in a format that's different to the tradition of spoken or speech delivered. They will do it in song and dance to connect with the local community around that. What a powerful thing. Getting local stories and local song through our elders who deliver a tradition that has been continuous for thousands of years and through that medium of their welcome to country. The other things with your regional space and state space. So, I work in Aboriginal Outcomes and Partnerships Directorate. We have a 7-12 advisor and a K-6 advisor. We also have a secondary and a post schooling advisor and an early years advisers. So whatever space you're in, we work with other curriculum advisors. We are from that space or I'm yes primary trained, but I've experienced Aboriginal education and other parts of education. So that's another avenue. We also have regional teams that you can connect with as well, who can connect you with local artists as well as some regional artists who may be connected with your local acts as well. It's another point of reference, you know, there's people around you to support you, you're not on your own. And I think when we talk about the department support mechanisms that are there to support you in the classroom, to support our kids. So, don't forget those.

But I will finish with Tom's messages of, you know, connecting with the music. You can't go wrong if you connect with the music. Aboriginal voices for Aboriginal people, by Aboriginal people, won't let you down. But it'll also be you're hearing from people first and foremost, and we talk about appreciation, not appropriation. You're appreciating artists, you know, you're not appropriating and if you're listening to it and sharing and appreciating it. The other thing is around that, sharing that with all of our colleagues as well. So, sharing what you have with other colleagues and don't think that what you're doing is not helpful to someone else. And we quite often forget that not that closed-door policy, share it with the teacher down the road, show the teacher in the next classroom and it might be something they can utilize.

So, keep seeing what's out there, keep researching, check with colleagues, check with local community. You're certainly going to support our kids.

Alex

Fantastic. Thank you so much Anthony and Tom for sharing your knowledge and expertise in all areas of Aboriginal education. The advice that you've given today has just been absolutely wonderful and so valuable and I'm sure that many music teachers will learn a lot from listening to speak today. Thanks again.

Jackie

This podcast was brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team of secondary learners, Educational Standards Directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes or email our creative arts curriculum advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au. The music for this podcast was composed by Alex Manton and audio production by Jason King.

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Listen to an insightful discussion on music theory, engaging students with the concepts of music, and an extensive list of revision tips for the HSC.

Transcript of Think tank – The concepts of music

Jackie

Yeah. So, when I do workshops, I ask students how many of you listen to music every day, and of course all of them are going to put their hand up. You know, it's very different to when I was at school and then the more I've been teaching, the more and more they're listening, so really their aural ability should be pretty good. But then I ask them how many are actively listening and you probably just get like half of their hands up, you know. And I ask them what active listening is. And so, I encourage them the senior music students to start actively listening. And, you know, silent practice is a real thing, but silent aural training is a real thing as well. So, when they're on the bus or when they're on the train and they're listening to a piece of music, they're thinking, “oh, I can hear that bass part, what is that? It's a descending. Oh, this is the melodic contour. Oh, there's the texture here is polyphonic.” So, they're aurally, you know, actively listening there. And I've said to them that for some music teachers, it ruins some pieces of music. Well, this piece of music and oh, that's a great example of texture. That's a great example of tone colour. You know, I've got a friend who is a music teacher and she's got categories in her Spotify, let's this is the duration and pitch and you know, she does it in the car. And I think that it's good and I encourage the students to do that because I think that that would really help them aurally.

I also encourage them to leave their opinion at the door because if it's a piece of music that they have heard before, then often they analyse what is coming next when they probably only get an excerpt and also it blocks them too with if they like a style or they don't like a style too because they're listening to so much music, they're very particular about what styles of music I guess they listen to and they're not open enough. So, the whole idea is to appreciate as much music as they can. I talk to them about Spotify and I say your music teacher is not adding to your Spotify playlist, but to try and give you as much music as you can. You know, I'm sure there are music teachers out there that will say, “oh, they don't like this piece of music and it's kind of blocked them”, but I think that it takes the shock value out of it. If they were to be given a piece of music in their HSC that they haven't been exposed to before. You don't want the reaction of 20th century art music to be weird music. You know, I'm thinking a very low level, but you want them to be able to go, okay, this is in this category. And that goes back to that whole styles of music. Things you think more broadly about what makes a style of music? I think also an understanding around cultural music as well, not all performance too. And I found that some students have been a little bit ignorant about some pieces of cultural music, about how it's not just all performance, but ceremonies. And as we know, I usually start off as I mentioned before with a general analysis. So, so how I would start off with the class would be, I would probably show them a video clip of a piece of music and we would discuss that so they might discuss it in pairs and then we discuss this as a class. So, and then I would take the conversation to wherever it leads us. That's the beauty of our teachings. Then I would give them another general listening, but an audio only and this time an excerpt, I would ask them to write everything that they can hear. I encourage them to write anything they can hear and don't worry about their first comment because I think some students, they're a bit paralyzed before they write because they think, oh, I have to write about the concepts of music or I have to write about this. So as long as they're writing something and again, like I said before, just encouraging them and give them the confidence to write whatever they can hear. So, I get them to play the excerpt and once they've done that we go over the six concepts, the music, the features in that, what makes it those concepts. So, you're bringing the terminology in there. But I also get them to write down at the end of the comment which concept they mentioned and I get them to show of hands and I'll say, did you mention duration? Who mentioned pitch? Who mentioned dynamics? Then I get them to look and see which one they commented on most and which one comment on least and then which one do you need to revise more? So, I think this is really good for year 12 because the trend now has been to talk about all the concepts of music in analysis, so making sure that they cover it, emphasizing they don't and an even number of concepts, but just to make sure that they are really talking about all the concepts of music. That activity is quite useful for them. And then collect the answers and model suggested responses. I’m very careful with suggested answers. Because you've always got that one student that says, are we supposed to notate that or are we supposed to have that in the answer? So, it's not I guess not like other subjects where that is the answer an explicit answer. These are suggested responses and emphasis on suggested. So just like the NESA website, we've got suggested responses on there. That's not an all encompassing answer. It’s their suggested, it's what kind of we go from. Then I get to the mind maps, so I will break down the mind map and probably build it up along the way. If it's a class and I've got more time with them, I would start with duration and then I build up the mind about with some sound bites along the way. With the mind maps, I'm really careful not to give them the entire mind map first, I tell them that pitch is the scariest looking mind map. If they are looking at mindmaps so to build that up slowly. So if they were to look at the certain features that they're building blocks really and again, like I said before, encouragement of what they already know, and if you've got a student who feels like they shouldn't be in that class, they don't know anything, we'll just emphasis what they already do know on the other side, if you've got a student who does know a lot, you expand their knowledge to the end branches as well. But there's always other terms that that student is probably needing more revision over, I will probably get them to do a mindmap without branches and I put that on the screen and then I will get them to link the branches, that's always a bit of a fun kinesthetic activity and then I can often give them a blank mind map. So I will you know say to a student okay I'm giving you a mind map test today and they go oh no really? And so, I give them a blank mind map and then they have to connect it. Then I will look at activities where I go lower and middle and higher order thinking, so bring it all together at the end of the mind map. I will get them to look at a mind map and circle the mind map to what they hear. So, I have done this with white boards before where they write down, you know, the mind map and they have to have to circle with what they hear. The middle order thinking is answering specific questions on the components within that, so answering explicit questions and then the higher order is an HSC style question. Somewhere extended responses and you stop wherever they feel wherever they struggle, you know, and a lot of students, once they built up that mind map, then they're able to then bring it all together at the end. But it's really important to bring it all together at the end because that's ultimately what they're going to be doing. I do another whiteboard activity where I was at a school where I had whiteboard tables and I would write a concept on each of the tables and the students would have to go around and add to that mind map. You can do it on the board as well. I've done butcher's paper too. I've done it with the boys at this school because it's practical and competitive. They love anything that's competitive. So, it's a way of the students talking about, oh, I know that branch goes there or not there, so it's a really good way of them bring all that content together. I like showing them texture diagrams as well. If they're more scorebased and they've done the year 9, year 10 and they read a lot of scores, they think they can think like that. So, and I tell the students that some HSC responses can get a really high mark from a very detailed diagram. It doesn't just have to be a diagram and then you leave it from experience. Some of the diagrams are really good, but they don't put enough detail in them to actually help them. And the texture diagram is that they have really listed all the instruments that are there and they're helping themselves because they can say, okay, in the chorus, that's the most texture. And this is what's happening in the cello part of this is what's happening in the bass part. So, the texture diagram is really good for that.

So one of the important areas that we emphasise in the New South Wales curriculum is the concept of audience and we do that very strongly because we have included in the curriculum from K-12, the area of the critical study of art and the historical study of art. So, what we do is we say in art, we can make works and that's obviously a logical starting point for many teachers, particularly in the primary years, that might be something that seems more obvious to them and certainly lends itself to exciting classroom activities. And these activities are based on the study of artists and their practice. One of the things that perhaps could be further emphasised in the curriculum is the student's own role as audience in the work that they make, but also in studying the work of other people. So, by asking students to take on the role of audience, what we're asking them to do is to become critics of the works by other artists and also of their own and be able to make judgments about what those things mean and what they look like. What's interesting though is that often the role of the critic is reduced to this idea that you just have a response to an artwork and that that's going to be an immediate range of ideas about the artwork and that somehow that artwork will represent its own meaning to you, or it will come streaming into you from somewhere and hit you in the head like a lightning bolt and suddenly it will all become self-evident. Well, in New South Wales, what we say is that that's not actually the case. You actually need to think about meanings in terms of logical concepts, ways of reasoning about them, and also knowing something about the work itself.

So, this points us to the idea that in order to be an audience and to learn to be an art critic or an art historian who wants to tell the story or the narrative about artworks and by default, has to deal with questions of meaning. The critic is necessarily required to start looking at the work, but also situating it within the circumstances of its own production. So, looking at the work on its own without any contextual information only gets you so far. If you do some research of that artist and the work that they have produced in the time and place in which it was made, you get a really rich way of interpreting and understanding the meaning of what the work looks like. The role of the audience is certainly one that involves what Richard Wollheim, who's a theorist of esthetician, and he talks about the role of the spectator, which is the same as the role of the audience, and he talks about the role of the spectator needing some cognitive stock, which is a term I love, because it immediately points to the need to teach students something about the works as well as expect them to make inferences about what they mean and explain what they think they're about. And students are actually really good at this. The students that I had talking to me about artworks in my own PhD study, talked at length about the ways in which different sorts of portraits could be interpreted by themselves, but also, the ways that portraits could be understood differently by different audiences. So, it's not just about me as audience, it's about how do other audiences make sense of these artworks.

So, again, layering those sorts of discussions and pulling on evidence from other sorts of critics and audiences, helps students take on the role of the audience, but understand that people have different points of view at the same time. So, again, it's a complex and layered account, and the conceptual framework gives us a lovely way of positioning the audience relative to what does this artwork mean? What does it represent in terms of the world represented? What sort of subject matter does it involve? And why did the artists make it? So, it's coming at the idea, the question of art and meaning from a different position other than just making it. And it's an important way of balancing out the different practices in our subject.

Kathrine

Fantastic. And even just in your response there in talking about the audience, you've made it really clear that none of these areas of the conceptual framework can ever really be looked at in isolation because you've necessarily talked to us about the artist and about the art world and about the artwork. So that connection between all of them, you've made beautifully visible and unpacked its importance as well. So, thank you. You have discussed today the conceptual framework as enabling students to engage with fundamental questions about the big ideas in art, such as what are artworks and what are audiences, you know, what is their role? And I know you've just talked a little bit about your research and

about what you found from your work with students. Can you see learners who only have an emerging or developing understanding of the art world, easily accessing those kinds of big ideas?

Karen

They bring these big ideas to the classroom and they may not have a fully formed understanding of how all of these ideas fit together. But there is a developmental sequence in the way that the conceptual framework or a theory of art, which is really what it is in cognitive terms, emerges in people's thinking and beliefs about art. So, for example, the work that Norman Freeman and Neil Brown conducted in the 1990s was pivotal in identifying the conceptual sequencing that occurs in the way that students develop an understanding of art. So, by interviewing students from the early years of primary school through to students entering the beginning of high school, they were able to map this conceptual development and the sequencing of concepts in students’ ideas about art. So, we know that, and the work that I've done confirms a lot of this work as well. We know that students arrive in kindergarten through to about year 2, and the main framing of their understanding of art would be through the lens of the subject matter. So, they have a very literal understanding of an artwork. So, for example, in my study, one of the six year olds looked at a portrait by Angera and it was a portrait of a princess and his response was, she is so pretty, she is just lovely, because it's a really realistically painted portrait that's beautifully coloured. Now, one of the things that we're seeing in that statement is that the student is relying on the subject matter to access the meaning of the artwork. So that's a naive realist positioning of their theory of art. They have collapsed the subject matter into the concept of artwork, but slowly and surely, and with the help of teachers too, the student can be brought to an understanding that the subject matter is part of the artwork.

This podcast was brought to you by the Creative Arts Curriculum Team of Secondary Learners, Educational Standards Directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education.

Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes or email our Creative Arts Curriculum Advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au. The music for this podcast was composed by Alex Manton and audio production by Jason King.

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Hear about the highlights and challenges of teaching creative arts in rural and remote NSW, as well as various support programs such as the new Rural Learning Exchange pilot program for visual arts.

Transcript of Think tank – Creative arts in rural and remote NSW

Jackie

The following podcast is brought to you by the Creative Arts Curriculum Team from Secondary Learners Educational Standards Directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education.

As we commence this podcast today, let us acknowledge the traditional custodians of all the lands on which this podcast will be played around New South Wales. Their art, storytelling, music and dance, along with all First Nations People, hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia. Let us acknowledge with honour and respect our elders, past, present and future, especially those Aboriginal people in our presence today who have and still do guide us with their wisdom.

Alex

Hello and welcome to the creative cast podcast series. My name is Alex Papasavvas and I'm a Creative Arts Curriculum Officer with the New South Wales Department of Education. The topic for today's Think Tank episode is creative arts in rural and remote schools and I'll be joined by two creative arts teachers from the central west region of the state. Tasma Crosswell from Ardlethan Central School and Claire Ryan from Molong Central School.

Jackie

First, compose our podcast music. Compose some music we could use for the intro and outro for our podcast next term. The best composition will be used in our podcast next term and win your school a $2,000 grant for creative arts.

The second is design next term's promotional tile. Our podcast theme for next term is where to from here. The best tile will be used for our where to from here podcasts next term and also win your school a $2,000 grant for creative arts. Find the full brief in the Creative Arts Statewide Staffroom. Entries for next term close on the last day of term three with the winning composition and tile to be featured and credited in term four’s podcasts. This initiative is only available to New South Wales Department of Education schools 2021.

Alex

Before we get into our discussion today, I'd like to give some context to a couple of the issues and initiatives will be talking about regarding rural and remote education in New South Wales public schools in particular as they relate to creative arts teachers. Country towns in New South Wales are often pretty small with small schools and pretty far from neighbouring towns. So, when we're talking about central schools and small schools, picture and enrolment of 300 students or less. In our K-12 Central schools this enrolment figure includes primary and secondary students and sometimes even preschool. This is obviously a much smaller school population than you'd expect in a metropolitan school or at a school in a larger town or regional centre, which I'll loosely define as an area with a high enough population to require more than one high school.

So, at a small school that might only have one or 200 students enrolled across 7-12, this can present a few issues that affect the school's capacity to offer senior subjects. If you only have 20 students going to Stage 6 classes, some of those classes are going to have to be pretty small, below the threshold some larger schools might use to decide whether or not to run a subject. One solution to this issue is the rural access program which was set up to enable a more diverse offering for senior students in small rural schools. There are a handful of different access programs across the state which are based on geographical networks of schools in neighbouring towns that come together to collaborate on their Stage 6 subject offerings. I've taught in the Wilvandee access program which includes Wilcannia, Ivanhoe and Menindee central schools and also the Lachlan access program which included Condobolin High school and Lake Cargelligo, Tullibigeal and Ungarie Central schools. The way these programs work is that Stage 6 subjects are delivered across the access program rather than through individual schools. Each Stage 6 subject will be taught by a coordinating teacher who is experienced in the subject and is responsible for programming, assessment, and some lesson delivery and supported by cooperating teachers across the network who use the coordinating teachers programming to deliver the course in their own schools. Usually there will be a videoconference component where the coordinating teacher will deliver a few lessons per fortnight to all students in that subject. And then the cooperating teachers support their students at their home schools to engage with the course content. So, it's an effective way to build teacher networks and experience across geographically isolated areas as well as to ensure that students able to engage with subjects like visual arts that might otherwise not have enough enrolments to run. Access programs also ensure that students have the benefit of an experienced specialist teacher, and also to make sure that in situations where teachers might be less experienced or isolated or teaching out of their subject area, that those teachers are able to benefit from the experience of the coordinating teacher.

The rural learning exchange is a new pilot program that operates on a similar model providing a network for schools to tap into with experienced subject coordinators who work collaboratively with local teachers to build a common learning sequence and assessments. Currently, the rural learning exchange is in effect for rural and remote schools to sign up for standard English, standard mathematics, agriculture and biology, but is about to be expanded to include other subjects including visual arts.

Some really good ideas there. Thank you. And I’ll just build on that by reminding teachers that if you are looking for resources or ideas, the Creative Arts Curriculum Team have really expanded what's on offer on our website in 2021. So, if you haven't looked at that for a while, we'll put a link in the show notes and definitely encourage you to check out some of the newer resources that we have on offer.

I mentioned earlier that I had previously taught in Wilcannia and I want to highlight one of our recent resource releases that relates to that area. Mapping Memory – Badger Bates is a visual arts resource for Stage 4 which takes a fairly in depth look at Badger Bates’ artwork, Mission Mob Bend Mob, Wilcannia 1950s. As part of the activities in the unit students engage with some of the Aboriginal history of the local area in Wilcannia. The first time I started using this artwork in my classroom was while I was teaching there and I think it's a good example of a way to bring in local content into a teaching unit. The feature artwork, Mission Mob Bend Mob is a stylised, historical map of the local area that highlights some of the key points of interest from the artist's personal and cultural history as a Barkindji man and students in that area resonated with this local content because it was really familiar to them. What I found when I moved to other schools in rural New South Wales is that there are Barkindji students there too and Aboriginal students from other language backgrounds like Wiradjuri students still resonated pretty strongly with this kind of localized content because some of the key themes and art making techniques were also relevant to them. So, do check out our resource offering for visual arts as well as PDM, music, dance and drama.

I'll also mention that the digital learning selector on the Department of Education website has a lot of ideas and scaffolds for activities as well as a list of digital learning applications and programs that you might not have heard of or used before. So definitely check that out too if you're needing something a little bit more in your virtual classroom.

Finally, the Creative Arts Statewide Staff Room provides a really great opportunity for New South Wales Department of Education teachers to connect with each other and with our curriculum officers and advisers. It's a place to exchange ideas and to get subject specific support. We’ll put a sign-up link in the show notes and I'll also mention one of our current initiatives called Creative Arts Connect, which we hold a couple of times a term. It's an informal open meeting for teachers to join and get advice or support from our officers and advisers as well as other teachers.

So, my last question to my guests, what would you say to teachers considering a move to a rural or remote school, Claire?

Claire

Look, as I said earlier, I arrived in Australia in 2008 and quickly learned about the list and how I would be at the bottom of that list and would be teaching casual for the next 20 years in the on the coast. I remember panicking with two very small children thinking you know I really should have researched the whole education employment process in Australia and also thinking that I didn't want to necessarily wait on the coast for 20 years for someone to retire. The job at Molong came up and I applied for a merit selection and was successful and the community took my family and I in and have given us an amazing place to not only raise our children, but provided me within a fantastic career and we just gained lifelong friendships. Real remote communities are amazing places. I've certainly grown as a teacher, have been given opportunities across the whole school, which I may not have had in a larger school in the metropolitan area. Things like actually being asked to lead other teachers when you're relatively new, formative assessment or having to step out of your comfort zone and teach areas that you're not that confident in, which really, really does make you consider how your teaching and the pedagogy of teaching. I remember when I first arrived, I had to teach a sewing class and I'd never used a sewing machine in my entire life. So luckily there was an amazing LSO who stepped in and I said, look Mrs Dougmore will now teach and I will just learn to sew, being really honest with the kids. It's been a journey, definitely a journey for myself, my family and I would definitely encourage anyone to take up a role in a rural or remote school. It really is a fantastic opportunity.

Alex

Yes. And I think a lot of teachers in smaller schools have had that experience of being asked to step out of their comfort zone and maybe cover classes or even teach a whole class outside of their subject area. Myself, I've had to go at a bit of science, a bit of a tech, but I do think that it really makes you reflect on your teaching practice and consider, you know? Well, I felt like I got better very quickly in my first couple of years in rural remote schools and a lot of that was because I was being forced to step out of my comfort zone, not just as a visual art teacher, but also as a fresh graduate. Suddenly, hundreds of kilometres from the place I consider home. Tasma, keen for your thoughts on this one.

Tasma

You will learn a lot more in a rural school than a huge faculty school. You'll be given so many opportunities on a day to day basis to step outside your visual arts room and become involved in the larger part of the school by writing the school magazine, putting it together, get to do those sort of things. Heading the wellbeing team. I was on the wellbeing team as the girls supervisor for 30 years and you get to explore a whole different field with the students doing that. Leading reviews, being an acting or becoming an actual head teacher role very quickly in the rural schools. I even got to be acting principal for a day, which was an experience and a half. So many promotion positions that call for experience now and you'll have it within your first few years because a rural school where staff are limited in number, someone has to step up and more often than not, it's you

Alex

I would just like to echo some of that and say that for my own part, starting to step into student welfare roles was really rewarding for my part.

I would say just go for it. Once you realize that there's life beyond Sydney, you may never want to go back. And if you've been in some very small towns and moved to a larger regional centre like Albury can feel a lot like going back to the city.

Thank you so much Tasma and Claire for sharing your knowledge and experience today. The advice you've given has just been absolutely wonderful and so valuable. I'm sure many creative arts teachers will learn a lot from hearing your advice. Thanks again.

Jackie

This podcast was brought to you by the Creative Arts Curriculum Team of Secondary Learners, Educational Standards Directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes or email our Creative Arts Curriculum Advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au. The music for this podcast was composed by Alex Manton and audio production by Jason King.

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Category:

Teaching and learning

Topics:

Arts
Curriculum development
Curriculum organisation

Business Unit:

Teaching, Learning and Student Wellbeing