I am posting later than I expected because I had such an eventful week and weekend.
From November 8 to 22 we accomplished a great deal. We were able to apply paint with the school children on 8 of 11 of the panels. This week we painted alongside the students. On designated days, 3rd to 8th graders painted with us throughout the week. The experience was both rewarding and time consuming because we had to prepare for at least two classes of 20 or more kids which can be quite challenging to manage. The main take away is that they truly enjoy painting and creating something. Though out the week I could hear many children mentioning the parts of the mural they painted and claiming ownership of their part in the design. The idea is that the children are involved in every step. Since the mural design was based on their drawings and incorporates their own work, the transfer of the design should be student-centered. This also encourages the students to take ownership of the mural so that it’s a representation of their hard work. Additionally, involving students in this manner helps reduce the likelihood that they’ll vandalize the mural.
At the end of the week we completed 30 % of the painting. Check out our progress each day below.
Lesson learned:
- Reduce the number of children in each session: It is very productive to have many hands filling in the spaces within the mural. However, it is quite a task to manage many inexperienced young hands and the completion of the mural painting. Therefore, my colleague and I have decided to paint with groups of 5 in each session allowing us to focus on our tasks and teach and help the students.
