Louise Scanlan

At the beginning of fourth year prior to our final placements we are required to work alongside our peers of the same discipline in order to create micro lessons for the rest of our year group, teaching them about an element of our studio practice. I am a printmaker. Alongside the other four printmakers in my year group I demonstrated etching to the rest of our class.

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For this lesson we had to create, write and conduct a body of work to present to the group. Each of us had an allocated job in order for the lesson to run smoothly. Jobs included creating an image, etching the design into a perspex plate, inking up the plate, wiping off the ink, preparing to paper for the print, printing the plate with and without a printing press and how to tidy up following the printing process. Health and safety was also a major element of this peer learning session. 

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This was an excellent way to learn how to teach a group with a number of teachers conducting the same lesson. From my school observations I have seen how difficult it can be to plan a lesson with more than two teachers conducting a class. This experience has given me the confidence to be able to teach in similar circumstances within a school setting in the future. It was also very beneficial to learn new skills from members of different disciplines as well and new ways of performing techniques within my own discipline.