BARRIE CEntraL COLLEGIATE
SIMCOE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, BARRIE, oNTARIO, 2007-2011
At BCC, I had the opportunity to teach Visual Art (grades 9 through 12) with the Ontario Art Curriculum considering Art Making skills, Art Theory and Global Visual Arts through a Canadian lens, focusing on digital mediums, drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture. I also taught English, ESL and the TIPS Literacy Course.
To help promote and encourage inclusion within the Arts programs, I created an ARTS website, supported numerous Arts initiatives such as Drama productions, Band concerts and, of course, the annual Christmas assembly (so much fun!!)
To encourage Visual Arts specifically, I instituted an 'Artist of the Month', decorated the school with student's work, facilitated the Mural Club, hosted Arts Nights with student-artist tables and the increasingly popular Art Contest (hosted during Arts Nights).
To help promote and encourage inclusion within the Arts programs, I created an ARTS website, supported numerous Arts initiatives such as Drama productions, Band concerts and, of course, the annual Christmas assembly (so much fun!!)
To encourage Visual Arts specifically, I instituted an 'Artist of the Month', decorated the school with student's work, facilitated the Mural Club, hosted Arts Nights with student-artist tables and the increasingly popular Art Contest (hosted during Arts Nights).
Atkinson, 'BCC Venus', Oil Paint, 2010
Other Key Responsibilities Include:
- Teacher Advisor to Arts Council - organizing Library Unplugged, our annual Paint-a-thon, Art Boards, Dancing with the Teachers and our a yearly photo-book of Art Awesomeness.
- Assistant Advisor to BCC's Student Newspaper
- Set Designer for our Musicals - Cinderella and James and the Giant Peach winning
BEST SET DESIGN for the SEARS DRAMA FESTIVAL, 2010. Woo Hoo! - English component of a 4 teacher team - Extended Learning Program (XLP) improving classroom attendance from 30% to 90% during our first year (see article below)
- TIPS After School Teacher, Literacy Committee Member, Literacy coach and mentor improving BCC's OLSST scores from 79% (2007) success rate to an 84% success rate (2011)
- Ontario’s Educational Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) OSSLT Scorer (2010) and Scoring Supervisor (2011).
Collage of BCC Activities: Christmas Assembly, Arts Council, Dodgeball (Students VS Teachers)
'Speaking of Literacy' Article in OSCA Today, 2011 (quoting me and the XLP program.)
DRAMA COLLABORATIONS - SET AND POSTER DESIGN
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CINDERELLA, 2008
JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, 2009 BCC’s Musical of Cinderella was an ambitious, creative and magical undertaking - and their set could be no less. Using Alphonse Mucha and the France countryside as inspiration, I designed an interactive set – that was decorative, golden… and massive! It could not have been done without all the teachers and art students who spent countless hours building and painting my idea – as well as the backstage hands who had to seamlessly move it through 2 weeks of performances. As a testament to our awesomeness, our set design was awarded Excellence in Set Design by the Festival of High School Musicals (FHSM). (mic drop) In 2009, BCC entered James and the Giant Peach into the Sears Drama Festival. My VA design team worked hard again to create a spectacular dramatic tree for the set design (which unfortunately, didn’t survive the trip home from Toronto for its photo shoot) 
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ARTS COUNCIL
As Facilitator for the Arts Council, it was a delight to support student's initiatives. During the year, Arts Council worked to promote Arts events both in the school and in the community, creating an information area in the library, as well as online with an Arts Council website. Arts Council hosted a 'Library Unplugged' every month, a 'Dancing with the Teachers' performance, a 'Paint-a-thon' and published a student newspaper.
ARTS NIGHT
Annually, to celebrate each year, teachers and students worked together to host Arts Night: a celebration of our artistic successes.
As an experiment to move away from the ‘traditional’ gallery setup and to boost attendance, we decided to encourage an interactive atmosphere. I developed an Art Contest; where a theme was set and students could submit creative works in support. The works were displayed in the Arts Night Gallery. Visitors to the gallery could browse the works and vote on their favourites. Also, to promote student artists, I developed 'Art Student Tables', where aspiring artists could reserve their own table and set up it up to showcase their own work.
As an experiment to move away from the ‘traditional’ gallery setup and to boost attendance, we decided to encourage an interactive atmosphere. I developed an Art Contest; where a theme was set and students could submit creative works in support. The works were displayed in the Arts Night Gallery. Visitors to the gallery could browse the works and vote on their favourites. Also, to promote student artists, I developed 'Art Student Tables', where aspiring artists could reserve their own table and set up it up to showcase their own work.
BARRIE CENTRAL PORTFOLIO
The OSSD Art Curriculum is very well organized and provides fantastic guidelines to help develop student artistic skills and cultivate art interests. At BCC, we developed our program so that in the Junior years, students focused on fundamentals and developed an understanding of early Art History theories. Students explored the Elements of Art, Principle of Designs, tenets of Art History (Egyptian, Gothic, Renaissance, Canadian (Group of 7, Northwest Coastal) and experimented with Art Mediums (Paint, Sculpture, Printmaking, Collage). This enabled them to prepare their skills and interest in order to specialize in their own artistic explorations and focus on creating a collection of work to support portfolio development in the Senior Art Classes. Many BCC grads continued their art studies at renowned schools as Sheridan College, Emily Carr Institute, U of T, McGill, Ryerson and York University
One of BCC's school-wide initiatives was IT literacy, and so for my VA classes, I focused on implementing technology into our Art Projects with outstanding results! The students really enjoyed being introduced to the joys of Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash and loved being able to create their ideas with digital imaging and photoshop manipulation.
Cartooning and character development was also something that BCC student's really engaged with. And our Student Newspaper was so encouraging in printing a regular comic strip for some of our budding animation/graphic novelists.
I am a big fan of murals and at BCC, I had a few empty walls to play with. In my classroom, one wall became my students playground, where student would sketch out their ideas, execute their design, then repaint and start again. It was a great process for both the artists and my art students to watch. :)
Cartooning and character development was also something that BCC student's really engaged with. And our Student Newspaper was so encouraging in printing a regular comic strip for some of our budding animation/graphic novelists.
I am a big fan of murals and at BCC, I had a few empty walls to play with. In my classroom, one wall became my students playground, where student would sketch out their ideas, execute their design, then repaint and start again. It was a great process for both the artists and my art students to watch. :)
