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My name is Sarah, I am 28 from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. I have three sons who keep me very busy! We spend most of our time at the beach or riding motorbikes on our farm. I have always loved the Arts, I have built my own business around creativity in photographs and love that there are more and more job opportunities for people to use their artistic skillset in the modern, digital world.

I love using my creativity to take film photos, learning how to shoot film rather than digital felt like learning an old forgotten art form. It’s really taken me back to the basics of photography and slowed down the way I take photos. I’ve shared some of my favourite shots here! You might see a reoccurring theme which I’ve also used in my unit plan snapshot!

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Module 1 Reflections: Natural assemblage

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Module 1 Reflections: Natural assemblage

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I have created an assemblage of my backyard. I live on a macadamia nut farm, we also have lots of citrus trees. My assemblage represents the process of the leaves dying and then feeding the soil to once again help the tree bare fruit. I spend everyday looking at these trees and fruit but I’ve never “looked” at them like this and the fresh perspective has made me appreciate the beauty of nature. Through participating in this activity, I have been made aware of the importance of changing your perspective. This is a great lesson to share with students and it’s made me reflect on other activities that would have the same impact.

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Recycled turtle - a sea creature who is affected greatly by plastic pollution. He is made from recycled materials/rubbish (a plastic bottle and a paper plate. 

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What? Inspired by Ghost net artworks by Aboriginal Torres Strait islander communities (https://australian.museum/learn/cultures/atsi-collection/ghost-net-art/) I have created a turtle out of rubbish from my home. The turtle is hanging to give the effect that he is swimming. The original artworks use discarded fishing nets which litter the ocean, my artwork will be littered with plastic, plastic bottles and other pieces of rubbish that are floating past the turtle. I really enjoyed making the turtle out of items I was going to otherwise throw away and would love to do this task with students one day. I love that this task is open-ended and up for interpretation by the artist. I would love to use the theme in a conservation themed art class, where all of the students creat their own rubbish sea animal.

So what? While I was making my turtle I tried to use sticky tape to piece it together which was not very sustainable and did not have the desired effect. I had to move to using glue which was much more efficient. I was not going to paint the turtle to give the rubbish effect, but after some thought I decided to give him a little paint to help him stand out against the floating rubbish. I only used paint I had lying around, hence the colours are not what I would normally choose for a sea turtle.

He is made from; plastic bottle and two paper plates and a piece of old string that was tangled in my art drawer and destined for the rubbish bin. I have used the string through the rest of the stop motion and appreciate its second life.

What now? I am planning to create a stop motion that shows my turtle drawing in rubbish, I plan to use plastic bags, bottles and other plastic items. I'd like the items to hang to give the impression they are floating in water but will need to re-evaluate how this will work with the stop motion process.

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Module 2.2 Reflections: Stop motion animation

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Module 2.2 Reflections: Stop motion animation

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Ocean pollution is something I, myself am very passionate about. Hence this movie reflects the current condition of the ocean, it gives the viewer a visual representation of our sea creatures drowning in rubbish. The rubbish moving towards the turtle is to give the effect he is swimming through the ocean and these items are floating passed him. This was a hard task to create a seamless video, I needed to take more time and more photos to create a precise video that truly looked like the turtle was swimming, he needed to move slightly through the 'water'. Initially I attempted hanging the turtle and the items but this was incredibly difficult to stop the turtle spinning in circles, I had to lie the turtle down on the floor instead. I also should have used more rubbish to really give the effect he was being weighed down by the rubbish. I also should have shot this during the day to avoid shadows falling over the video.

In future practise, I would design this task as a collaborative assignment. Two students can work together, one as the photographer and one would move the pieces, this would help to create a seamless video.

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Module 3.1 Artefacts and Reflections: Abstract art

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Module 3.1 Artefacts and Reflections: Abstract art

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What? This task involved the integration of music and visual art through sound and drawing. To engage with the content this week, we composed an artwork that displayed the sound we listened to, showcasing the emotion and feeling that could be heard. Prior to the task, the elements of visual art were reviewed to ensure we had enough prior knowledge to complete the task; such as shape, colour and line, and the elements of music including tone, pitch, melody and rhythm.

We engaged with the music initially without drawing anything, this was purely to listen and write down any ideas about the emotion and what elements we could hear. I imagined a small animal, maybe a mouse being stalked by a bigger animal such as a cat, the music clearly demonstrated two emotions, doom and fleeting hope. We listened to the music a second time, this time drawing what we could hear. My drawing represents the parallel sounds/stories, the yellow sharp points represent the high pitch, hopeful sounds and the deep blue waves represent the deep base, impending doom sounds. The low, long sounds were connected throughout the piece, hence I used shading and a stairs to represent this. However the high short, sharp sounds were more disjointed and disconnected, so the sounds were left with more white spaces between.

So what? Music is a highly emotional art form, it interests me what is brought to the surface when you take a moment to really feel and visualise the music. Just like visual art, drama and dance, music can be interpreted differently for each individual and hence this task has increased my awareness of encouraging others to have a go, as art is open for interpretation.

Now what? This activity has increased my understanding of music elements and how music can enhance visual art. There are endless ways this type of activity could be used in the classroom, including during behaviour breaks for students who have a difficult time expressing their emotions. These students could choose a piece of music to play and draw how they are feeling as a way to calm down and express themselves.

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I have chosen to create a soundscape on the art work Desert Storm by Sidney Nolan. When I look at this paining, I feel a sense of need and despair, like the landscape is crying for something. The land looks dry, like it's almost on fire, it makes me feel like it would burn to touch the painting. The picture seems silent, like there's nothing living for miles in the painting. I am excited to create a soundscape for this painting and capture the desolate, eeriness that I feel when I look at Desert storm. Within the artwork you can see how Sidney has used colour to differentiate between the sky and the land, he's used colour to show the dryness and weariness of the land. He's used line to show the trees and features throughout the scene.

I loved this activity, the limitless potential to be creative was very exhilarating. Creating a soundtrack that was a little bit weird and eerie was a nice change to the usual, perfect, aesthetic photographs I normally take. Students would love to create soundtracks like this to play with different work, such as during an English retell to set the scene, or during science, the students could record the sounds of their experiments and then use them to make their own soundtrack. There are limitless activities thats students could be engaged in utilising an app like soundtrap.

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In this learning reflection we needed to integrate dance and science using movement sequences to create choreography to represent an Australian native amphibian characteristic using the element of dance. I chose to represent the green tree frog as we have hundreds that live around our home. I regularly see them move and hunt on our windows which inspired my dance.

In my dance I utilised the style of movements frogs make, I didn't follow a storyline but utilised their movements and the features of their movements to create my dance. I use quick fast movements which represents the frogs jumping and moving quickly to catch their prey. I also show slow movements to represent how frogs slowing crawl and move on land. I could have also added swimming motions as frogs are incredible in the water and move very fluidly.

Green tree frogs are native Australian amphibians, they live throughout Australia and are one of the most widely distributed frogs. They have sticky pads on their fingers which they use to cling to trees and leaves. Although frogs are protected across Australia, there are provisions that allow you to capture tadpoles, watch them change into frogs, and then return the juvenile frogs to the place you captured them, this could be a wonderful learning opportunity for students to watch the life-cycle of a frog and how the tadpoles to frogs move. The students could create their dance as a transformative dance showing the different life stages of a frog.

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Lieutenant William Bradley shows Sydney Cove  after the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 

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Module 4.2 reflections and learning: Drama and HASS

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Module 4.2 reflections and learning: Drama and HASS

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1. Drama activity: This activity has been developed to give students' a deeper understanding of the historical events surrounding the arrival of the First Fleet, using drama students are able to feel more empathy and understanding for the stories they are acting. The activity will take place in week six during the topic "Strangers come to stay", students will be in groups of 4 or 5. Using improvisation cards for each group the students need to act out the first encounter between the Aboriginals and the strangers in their land. For example: Captain Arthur Phillip and another explorer sail around close to shore in a small boat. Aboriginals call out in unpleasant voices as they sail passed, ‘Warra warra warra’ they wave and throw spears in a threatening way. Students are to use this as the context for their improvisation, they need to think about their space and how they will embody the Aboriginals or Phillip. After the students have presented their improvisation, the students can discuss why the aboriginal people acted in a hostile way, how would they have been feeling and how would the explorers have been feeling after that encounter. What view of the native people of Australia would the explorers have had?

2. Justification
This activity integrates history and drama as students are gaining a deeper insight into the feelings of both the first fleet and the Aboriginals. They will develop a deeper understanding of the fear, excitement and anger felt and can empathise with the Aboriginal communities. The curriculum requires students to investigate the contact between Aboriginal people and europeans, hence this activity will further extend their knowledge through narrative and create a deeper level of understanding.  The students are using there drama elements when embodying their character, they need to think about space, tone, tension and what movements and facial expressions they will be making.
3. Assessment
To formatively assess students during this task, I would involve myself in their improvisation. This would be to probe with questions and make actions that would require them to act how their character would. By being in character, I would gain a deeper insight into the students understanding, and could use questions and feedback to further the learning experience.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Module 5.1 reflections and learning: Drama and science

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Module 5.1 reflections and learning: Drama and science

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Which subjects have the potential for arts integration with drama?
Drama provides the perfect narrative/role playing setting for students to engage further with the content from many subjects; while empathising with the content as they are able to connect with it on a deeper level. As explained in the tutorial; English and HASS/history naturally intertwine in an authentic meaningful way, students can engage with stories and human history through roleplaying the characters. Science is less commonly integrated with drama, but there is great potential to use drama to encourage students to investigate a topic. For example, students could use improvisation to hypothesise what they think will happen and justify this as the phenomena they are testing.

Dahn et al. (2021) explain "The benefit of improvisation is perhaps most obvious in classrooms where teachers explicitly introduce drama and role-play as a mechanism for engaging with complex phenomena by taking on a role within that phenomena"

In the classroom I would utilise play and improvisation to explore a topic with the students; during a lesson on the germination of seeds, I would have students improvise being the seed. I would have the students standing in their own space, ready to move and explore. I would get the students imagining they are the seed "imagine you are the seed, where are you, do you feel safe, trapped or free? Show me this in your movement. Imagine you have been planted, what happens to a seed once it's in the ground?  Show me this through your movements." I would continue the narrative until the students show me they are now a plant or the seed didn't grow etc. This type of activity is heavily engaging and hands on, the students can be the plants rather than just watching what happens when a seed germinates hence allowing the students to engage holistically with the science content whilst also engaging in key elements of drama. Both content areas are valued and students will develop understanding in drama and the science content.

Dahn, M., Lee, C., Enyedy, N. (2021). Instructional improv to analyze inquiry-based science teaching: Zed’s dead and the missing flower. Smart Learn. Environ. 8, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-021-00156-9