Hi Eagles!
In continuation from our subject articles, we’re changing things up by traversing subjects that hinge on creativity and the ability for one to express numerous ideas, concepts and such. The Art subjects, established alongside the core subjects, allow students a higher degree of adaptability to cultural contexts that differ from one another. It’s difference is the emphasis on creativity within the context of practical research into the relevant genres. For better understanding on the available Arts subjects in Sekolah Ciputra, we’ve interviewed several teachers in each respective field. We’ll begin with Pak Diko, one of the Visual Arts teachers!
Who doesn’t know Visual Arts? Visual Arts has been a subject that is known as a class where you can express artistically through drawing, painting and many more art methods. Visual Arts subject is available throughout Grade 7 to Grade 12 which means even in the DP Program. In Visual Arts, students according to their year levels will learn different topics and art media that ranges from drawing by hand until drawing virtually with smart apps. This year, Pak Diko teaches Visual Arts class from Grade 8 until 12. He teaches many things that are related to the arts such as elements of arts, principles, concepts of art and many more. Beginning with Grade 8, right now they are currently focusing on painting which uses the methods of acrylic paints and still focusing on the fundamentals of Visual Arts. Moving on to Grade 9, students are currently learning about photography, which leads them to know digital technology. In Grade 10, teachers expect students to know more about the concepts of arts, which they learn about 3D form recycled art and also 10th graders are now preparing for grade 11 and 12 DP.
Last but not least is Grade 11 & 12 DP, in Visual Arts class teachers are focused on students' character. Right now, students are expecting to have a deeper understanding of the concepts in Arts. Focusing on Grade 12, they are now focusing on learning about skills in oil painting. Also 12th Grader, are now preparing for their IA Final Assessment, which is a Visual Arts Exhibition. The benefit of students in terms of skills/abilities is that they relate to artistic skills, visual communication/visual recognition awareness, and psychology. In Visual Arts students also learn about being open-minded, being tolerant, self management skills and time management.
Aside from all Visual Arts per year level topics. As stated by Mr. Diko “Many people think that learning Visual Arts can only be an Artist '' but that’s definitely incorrect because if we realize right now in this world we are currently using technology and virtual learning, and most of that will rely on visuals. That’s why Mr. Diko strongly believes that Visual Arts is important, because most of the things in this world rely on visual and graphics. Not only that, but from Visual Arts it can pursue your careers and profession, starting from something that is usual until art and design that is related to industries until the skills that are used for (creative investigator, long enforcement (police, military, psychology etc).
Actually, Visual Arts isn’t as difficult as we think because from skills and knowledge all people can learn and each person will have different skills. However, one of the problems is that nowadays people are being so lazy, lacking commitment and procrastinating. A great solution from Mr. Diko is that in this world we know that we have something that we dislike about it, but on the other side we have to face that situation. “What matters is that we have to do it, it’s better than nothing” It’s not being the best but doing your best.
These are images of Mr. Diko 12th Graders Visual Arts situation in HMI Learning. And preparing for their final IA Final Assessment, the Visual Arts exhibition.
Among the other art based subjects, Dance class is one of the lessons that Sekolah Ciputra offers. All of the dance classes are taught by Mr. Fery who is also a Bahasa Indonesian teacher in Sekolah Ciputra. As per in many other creative art subjects, in Dance class the students will learn different topics as per year level. As starters, when you get the first glimpse of Dance class in Grade 7, students are expected to learn about cultural dance. Creating a good relationship with dance and their country is key to cultural understanding or awareness. 8th Graders on the other hand, are taught to perform modern dance, to understand the now and evolving urban stylistic dances. 9th Graders after already experiencing Dance class twice before, are subject to learn about contemporary dance, a combination of both modern and traditional dance. After accumulating years of knowledge, 10th Graders are held to a high standard, where they need to choreograph their own moveset for an original dance performance.
Dance at first glance would sometimes look like a linear subject with a certain subset of skills, good dancing. However, the subject is much more than that. In order to properly flourish in the lesson, students need to train their physical control skills, expressive skills, mental skills, performance environment control and good communication skills. From these skills, the students can branch out into many different careers in the future, namely dancers, choreographers, stage managers, dance coaches, costumes designers, videographers, etc. There are three main important difficulties when it comes to dance class. First, the lack of confidence for some students, holding them back from maximum performance. Second, pessimistic mindsets could also create a slow environment when learning dance. Third is exploring, students need to take their own initiative and explore more about dance. Students are expected to think out of the box and not only see dance from a surface level.
Dance students in Ciputra are expected to hone their skills at interpretation and application of dance. These creative careers are equally contributive in today’s society, producing entertainment and modernizing art. Dance is not just a subject, dance is an outlet, where you can change your mood and turn negative things into positive and empowering movements.
These are images of 9th Graders doing contemporary dance in Mr. Fery's Dance Class. This is also the situation with HMI learning in Mr. Fery’s Dance classes.
Moving on to Drama. Drama is one of the Art subjects Sekolah Ciputra has for students from Grade 7 until 10 to gain interest in. Given the circumstances, we’ve interviewed the Drama teacher named Ms. Niken for further specifications about the curriculums for each year's levels to get thorough and explicit information regarding the lesson. Firstly, Grade 7 students are currently learning about the basic elements and principles of Drama such as plot, character, and setting since this is their first year in the MYP. Next, the Grade 8 students are studying about the Stanislavski System where it helps students to improve their acting skills and techniques especially in terms of expression and authenticity. Following this are the Grade 9 students, they are studying mime skills. In other words, they are learning how to communicate strictly through body language and not verbally.
Finally, all Grade 10 students who selected Drama are undergoing a 1 full year programme where they are instructed to research thoroughly about theater, documentary drama, new style of drama performance, combination of information/news, and elements of physical theater during Semester 1 so that there are techniques and methods that can be applied in the next semester. During Semester 2, students are required to make their own script based on the given topic and perform it. Furthermore, Grade 10 students need to apply all the drama skills learned from Grade 7 during Term 4.
With this being said, Drama is a significant subject that can be used to pursue entertaining professions in this era like employment in the movie industry such as stage performer, actor/actress, director, and producer considering movies have existed for decades where performers convey messages through acting for people around the world to gain knowledge about. Since communication skills are important in schools or our daily lives, Drama is a suitable lesson to enhance those skills especially for projects or group works. Not only that, Drama can help students be more creative, which is considered to be really important for any profession when facing unfamiliar inconveniences and problems. Apart from this, Drama can help students to be confident because there are practically weekly performances which will make the students adapt and be familiar with talking and acting overtime. Reflective skills are also a major aspect from Drama. After performing, students look back at their performance and think what went well or parts that should be improved, which is part of the IB learner profile of both being a reflective learner and student.
Although Drama is a fairly challenging subject regarding the curriculum, Drama is also challenging and difficult for the students' mental state such as confidence and low self-esteem. For example, students struggle to apply appropriate facial expressions because they wouldn’t like to make themselves look bad considering this is one of the most vital aspects in Drama. In this subject, practicing repetitively at school is not only a way to get better but practicing at home too. Familiarizing yourself in any given circumstances is really crucial. Not only expanding your knowledge through primarily prior knowledge but watching movies can help with applying facial expression. Apart from that, students find Drama really suitable and interesting because it is one of the platforms where they get to express themselves through performances, regardless of it being anger, sadness, and rage with minimal restrictions from the teacher. Not only that but students get to explore their imagination and actually showcase it.
This is a collage of Ms. Niken’s Grade 7 Drama classes with the system of HMI or Hybrid Model of Instruction that the school applies which allows students to come back to face to face learning. On the other side, the middle picture was last year Ms. Niken's Grade 9 class, a student was showing exaggerated actions, emotion and energy in a mime performance.
The last Art subject taught at Sekolah Ciputra is Music, taught by Mr. Himawan and Mr. Agus Rubi. The OSIS team conducted an interview with Mr. Himawan to get an in-depth understanding of how the subject is taught at Sekolah Ciputra. Students per year learn the topics as the following: Grade 7 - Vocal Techniques, Grade 8 - Gamelan, Grade 9 - Rap and Hip Hop Music, Grade 10 - How to Create a Short Music Passage to Fit a certain Silent Movie, Grade 11 - Exploring, Presenting and Experimenting Music, Grade 12 - Solo Performance and Musical Links Investigation (MLI). The range of different topics per year level allows students to enhance and learn skills. Some examples of what these topics teach students are ways to express themselves freely, how to be more confident, enhances students’ creativity, more open-mindedness, research skills, and how to build a Music Portfolio. Other things learned include effective breathing techniques in Grade 7, the use of technology to create music (especially in Grade 9-10), and the process behind a solo performance.
According to Mr. Himawan, some of the most common problems students face in Music class are being unable to use vocal techniques to produce resonant voice, being unfamiliar with the use of technology to create and edit music, lacking self-confidence, not being able to apply music research methodologies, and the inability to perform live due to the pandemic situation. Some ways to solve these problems for Grade 7 students are by practicing hum exercises before the actual singing performance and lots of effective practice.
Even though Music may not be a common subject to pursue as a career, it is still something valuable worth learning. Music allows us, as individuals, to convey messages in a more acceptable and artistic way.
This is a collage of Mr. Himawan’s Music class, using an online website (Noteflight) to create a composition following gamelan principles.
To note, every student has the option to select one from the four available subjects once in Grade 10 which supports the fact that Sekolah Ciputra invariably makes sure that a student’s creativity flourishes regardless of how they want to express it. These art subjects are solely guiding tools for students to further develop their sense of creativity and cultural understanding. Nonetheless, OSIS would like to express gratitude to the teachers working in each respective arts department and hope the subjects elaborated within this article have piqued your interest.
This article was written by the OSIS Public Relations Team (Felice Agnes 10C, Yumiko Gisselle Suryadi 11DP & Zidane Julio Junior 11UDP, Anastasia Lilananda 8C & Bianca Purwadi 10B), Edited by the OSIS Team (Michael Sean Gunawan 11DP & Wenny Wibisono 11DP) & Supervised by Jefferson Tanto 11DP & Mr. Rizal Rakhmat Dwianto.
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