Creative Arts Report

Carolyn Acorn

Creative Arts Department Coordinator

At ISK, our Creative Arts Department continues to be a source of inspiration and creativity for our community. As in all schools around the world, our students and teachers have dealt with the challenges of teaching and learning in a world with COVID-19. From the continuing change in our learning environments to how we socially interact with our peers, our ISK community continues to rise to the occasion. This is true in our Creative Arts Department, where the very nature of our subjects is about self-expression, creativity, collaboration, and communicating with an audience. Our amazing students and teachers have found ways to still do it during this challenging time.

Arts in Elementary School

Our Elementary Music teachers are Mrs. Rachel Aondo and Mrs. Laois Rogers, supported by teaching assistant Mrs. Margaret Oganda. Our Visual Art teachers are Mrs. Liza Goold and myself, with teaching assistant Mr. Josphat Magut. For the first half of the year, with the exception of Grade 5 students, most teaching and learning was done via weekly scheduled “live” Zoom classes and asynchronous learning tasks on the online platform, Seesaw. Teachers had to learn how to help our younger students to communicate, create, share feedback, and revise work in an online environment.

Although we were mostly online, we did celebrate Elementary School Arts Week later in the year during International Week, showcasing their learning on the International Day website. When our students came back in January, the Arts Centre felt alive for the first time since last March. Visual arts students were getting their hands messy with paint, textures, and clay. Musicians were singing, dancing, and playing instruments once again. Even though masks and social distancing have become a part of our learning experience, students still came to arts classes with excitement, ready to share their creative ideas. Some students even shared their learning with their parents during student-led conferences.

Arts in the Middle School

Our Arts team in the Middle School consists of Eleanor Miller teaching Grades 6-8 Visual Arts, Robin Willis teaching Grade 6-8 Drama, and Mark Anding teaching Grade 6-8 Music. Barissa Dhidha is a part-time drumming teacher who works with our Grade 6 students each quarter. Antony Ngaruiya and Waturi Ekirapa, our teaching assistants for Visual Art and Music, have also dedicated their time to learning the new online tools, providing feedback and working with small groups online and in-person. Middle School teachers have had similar challenges to Elementary, where Grade 6 and 7 were online for most of the first half of the year. This did not stop them from doing some really amazing things this year. Visual Art students had a chance to create and showcase their artwork for the virtual peace day assembly. Mrs. Miller helped set up a collaboration opportunity between Grade 8 art students and the Advanced Spanish class to help with visual input for the Spanish language blog. Students in the New Designers’ class practiced their sewing skills and made aprons for the new Middle School kitchen. Some students’ artwork was showcased in the International Day closing ceremony.

Grade 8 drama students from the Theatre for Young Audiences Class performed The Mysterious Murder of Matthew James for Grade 5 students. This play was performed virtually through Zoom, with Grade 5 students watching on the big screen. There was also a surprise interactive moment with the audience! Grade 6 students performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the new Blackbox Theatre for peers and teachers: the first performance in the new space. Twenty-One Middle School drama students attended the ISTA Festival (from Grades 6, 7 and 8) in collaboration with AISJ-Johannesburg. Although our ISK students participated online, it was clear through their final performance that they enjoyed their festival and bonded with their peers. In Middle School music, our band students had their lessons outside in a big spacedout tented area, while choir students used the roof space in our new Middle School building. When on campus, music students had opportunities to perform together as an ensemble. Grade 8 students were able to perform in front of a few audience members while they pre-recorded their songs for the virtual Spread the Love Charity concert. While learning at home, choir students and other community members were invited to learn the song, One Voice, by the Wailin’ Jennys. Singers rehearsed and recorded their parts. Mr. Anding then took those recordings, edited and layered them to create an amazing, virtual musical performance. He had taken many hours recording parts and learning how to use online editing tools to help enhance his students’ learning experience.

Our High School Arts teachers are Jill Hire, HS/IB Theatre; Gwendolyn Anding teaching HS/IB Music; and Kaigwa Gakunju, along with Andrew Kay teaching HS/IB Visual Art classes. Millicent Obiero supports our music High School students as a teaching assistant and is the piano accompanist for High School solo performers. Antony Ngaruiya also works with the IB Visual Art students, helping to provide materials, offer feedback, and helping with displays. Our High School students and teachers have faced many challenges this year and have had to adapt to many sudden changes. Although our changing situation made things complicated, this did provide students and teachers with opportunities to think “out of the box” and come up with creative solutions. Students continued to create and collaborate through their composition work, scriptwriting, directing, and visual displays. Performing was still a big part of our program, even with a limited audience (live/ virtual).

Theater performances went on in the auditorium, the IB Visual Art Exhibition also took place in the Commons area and IB musicians still recorded their recital pieces. Twenty-one music students recently participated in the ISSEA Music Virtual Festival hosted by the International School of Tanganyika. A highlight for our department was their involvement in December’s Spread the Love Charity concert, organized and sponsored by Pamela Pappas and the Advancement Office. We were fortunate to have many students, faculty members and our very own creative arts teachers showcase their singing, dancing, and instrumental performances for such a good cause. Jill Hire was key to the organization of this concert, along with Mark and Gwendolyn Anding, who gave their time and talent to help showcase their students’ musical talent as well as their own.

Our teaching and learning in the Creative Arts was also heavily supported by our Arts Centre supervisor, Sammy Mwangi, and assistant supervisor, Kennedy Wando. Together with help from our operational staff, they helped set up our flexible environment for online and oncampus learning. This school year, we have all learned the importance of flexibility, perseverance, feeling safe, and looking out for one another. We are all proud of the work our department has achieved this school year.

Carolyn Acorn

K-2 Visual Art teacher Creative Arts Department Coordinator