Summative Reflection Part 1 and 2

Part #1

Part #2

Pre-Thinking / Proposal

What are my thoughts on my teaching for the beginning of the semester to now?  I would like to go back and re-evaluate the 12 qualities great teachers share.  These are: compare and contrast, and before and after. What it means for me to be a teacher and why I always being a life long learner. Through this foundation that was helps me change into better teachers that I did not know was there. Next, I would like to look back at the student’s that I had the privileged to work with and what where their abilities, reflect back on what has changed throughout using this blog experience and see if I can de-code what information has changed from the very beginning to now.

Format

For my summative reflection, I would like to do a visual representation of my progression using video. (Yes, I’m in love with having videos and a way to visually express what is on my mind). This incorporates pictures, words, sounds and voiceovers. As I look back on my old way of thinking, and work through what happened this semester and I look at what my thinking looks like now.

Talking about each step has changed over the semester and why that change took place as I see it.

Lineage Tree

Using the tree I can see that I am growing everyday and this will be an on going thing throughout my life and teaching. At this moment, I need to add three more influences that have happened to me this semester regarding the tree.  I think I need to add all the students that I have interacted with.  Also, they need to have their place on the tree. Without them, I would not have grown the way I have this semester. Each of them allows me to see things from their viewpoint and that is a whole new way of thinking. Maybe they are not the branches in the tree, but they are the leaves themselves.  I see them as blooming flowers and each flower is a different color to show that each one of these students have given something of themselves to me.  They can be different color flowers for different groups of students.

My lineage tree, as I see it, is something that has a very strong root, which keeps me centered, allows me to grow and change over time. I’m adding color to each new the flowers as a major turning point in my teaching.

video II

Marzano - Chapter 6 - Observing and Discussing Teaching: Week 12

For those that do not know where I work, this is a small, but brief insight. I work for the office of Research and Graduate studies; International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) we, as a program, help international teaching assistants become better teachers through different programs like – SPEAK test, and the OPT test (videoconferencing). I help with the advisory evaluation of these instructors through video taping them in their classrooms. With that videotape, we then interpret and I re- view the tape together and strategize to help them improve their teaching skills. This way they can connect with their students and become an improved teacher.

On page 75 of chapter 6 it talks about videos of other teachers and ways to help improve our teaching. I can tell you that this method is a great tool for anyone to see what they are missing in their teaching process. Also other ways to see teaching that can help.  Some are just to sit in a classroom and watch someone else’s teaching style. We can see what is done well by that teacher and what is not. That way we can also reflect back on our own teaching style and what we might need to change about our style of teaching in the classroom setting.

Peer coaching on page 78, we, as teachers, are always coaching. It could be our peers, our students or the people we interact with. This relationship that comes with the understanding a passion to teach, can find them self in someone else shoe. Through these relationships we also have growth that helps us become something better than what we were before. The communication clarifies some random question that two or more people can work out and form a relationship over and can grow within the classroom setting also.  Our students need to see this to help them understand that we have a relationship with our colleagues that might help them form a greater understand of life and with each other.

Working with these instructors has helped me see that I also need to improve my teaching style. Sitting in their classrooms and watching their students interact with them has given me a different viewpoint on what the students need from their teachers. For me it’s trying to find new strategies that can help me in the classroom to be come a better teacher, finding ways to interact with my students in their time and space. We need to have ways to interact with other educators that can help us see new ways in our own learning to reach far beyond who we are and what we doing now. Change is hard for all of us, but it can lift some of the burdens and responsibilities that teaching can bring to the new educator world.

Responds to blogs week 11

Annette:

First off I would love to see what your student’s work looks like for the lesson on, “Why Design Is Important: Creating A Space Of Your Own.” I can visually see the two-dimensional surface of a room, but having each student adding their own perspective to this assignment would explain a lot for me. Could you also name what historical artworks you will be showing your students for this lesson?

I love artwork that helps students reflect on their self-expression.  This is one of the best ways to keep our students engaged within the classroom from what I have seen.

Annette, this lesson was very thought out and I hope you do not mind, but I’m going to add this lesson to my basket of ideas to pull from.

Jon:

On part 1: This was a great way to add classroom management to your lesson by adding, “Raising your hand if ….”. This is a great way for you to see if and/or when your students are following the lesson and a great way to use the checks and balances of understanding to assessment throughout the lesson. Jon, on your next lesson try to make it for just one grade level, I think this would help in the planning and the activity. Last, but not least, young children need to have shorter questions and answers with hands on or visual clues. In my opinion, this lesson was designed for older aged students, but you used your young girls and they were too cute. Pull it back next time, if you do this level again. Simple is the best way to keep their attention.

Jon, this was a great first lesson and you are on your way to becoming a great teacher.

Here are the links to the National Art Education Standards and Visual Art Grade Level Expectations for next time.

http://www.arteducators.org/research/naea-standards

https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/gle-visual-arts.pdf

Week 11: Practice Instead

What would I have done different? I'm not used to teaching to such small students, but I see that I need to bring the lesson down to their level and prepare or assemble smaller sets. Everything worked out pretty well.  One small factor was time. I needed more. The students were amazing during the whole lesson.

I introduced the lesson through a PowerPoint and in the PowerPoint was the Powtoon.  The Students got to yell back-and-forth the answers at the screen. I really think they enjoyed that part of the activity. Then we moved on to understanding what a microorganism is. They had a general knowledge from their field trip that they went on last week in science class (I also went on that field trip with them). Next was the VTS lesson, this group of students has never done a VTS lesson. So it was a little slow at first, but eventually they started to understand that their answers were correct and they could express themselves with a variety of answers.

After the VTS lesson I introduced them to making a little art journal, they had to follow the step by step instructions to assemble a small book. This is where I needed to plan out for more time so they could get their books done.  I had to adjust the books in a different way, so it all worked out in the end. I brought the students back to the mat and we had a small discussion about what their homework would be. What they needed to investigate and where they could get the information from for the investigation. Their homeroom/science teacher was there so she knew what was going on. She is going to help them in their reading time with their investigation. We did an assessment at the end of the day to rap it up. We talked about what they enjoyed about the lesson and what they didn't in within their art journals.

Microorganism

Name- Shirley Boudreaux

TITLE OF LESSON- Microorganism

GRADE LEVEL - 4th

NATIONAL VISUAL ARTS STANDARDS-

(MA: Cr1.1.4)Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Enduring Understanding: Media arts ideas, works, and processes are shaped by the imagination, creative processes, and by experiences, both within and outside of the arts. Essential Question(s): How do media artists generate ideas? How can ideas for media arts productions be formed and developed to be effective and original? 

Conceive: Conceive of original artistic goals for media artworks using a variety of creative methods, such as brainstorming and modeling.

(MA: Cr3.1.4)Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Enduring Understanding: The forming, integration, and refinement of aesthetic components, principles, and processes creates purpose, meaning, and artistic quality in media artworks. 
 Essential Question(s): What is required to produce a media artwork that conveys purpose, meaning, and artistic quality? How do media artist’s improve/refine their work?

Construct: a. Structure and arrange various content and components to convey purpose and meaning in different media arts productions, applying sets of associated principles, such as balance and contrast. b. Demonstrate intentional effect in refining media artworks, emphasizing elements for a purpose.

(MA: Re7.1.4) Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work
Enduring Understanding: Identifying the qualities and characteristics of media artworks improves one's artistic appreciation and production. Essential Question(s): How do we 'read' media artworks and discern their relational components? How do media artworks function to convey meaning and manage audience experience?

Perceive: a. Identify, describe, and explain how messages are created by components in media artworks. b. Identify, describe, and explain how various forms, methods, and styles in media artworks manage audience experience.

(MA: Re8.1.4) Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work. 

Enduring Understanding: Interpretation and appreciation require consideration of the intent, form, and context of the media and artwork. Essential Question(s): How do people relate to and interpret media artworks?

Interpret: Determine and explain reactions and interpretations to a variety of media artworks, considering their purpose and context.

(MA: Cn10.1.4) Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
Enduring Understanding: Media artworks synthesize meaning and form cultural experience.
Essential Question(s): How do we relate knowledge and experiences to understanding and making media artworks? How do we learn about and create meaning through producing media artwork.

Synthesize: a. Examine and use personal and external resources, such as interests, research, and cultural understanding, to create media artworks. b. Examine and show how media artworks form meanings, situations, and/or cultural experiences, such as online spaces.

(MA: Cn11.1.4) Anchor Standard 11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding

GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS (GLEs)-

Big Idea 2: PS 2 Interacting With Others in Ways That Respect Individual and Group Differences C. Personal Responsibility in Relationships Identify and practice the skills used to compromise in a variety of situations. DOK: Level 3

Big Idea 4: AD 4 Applying Skills Needed for Educational Achievement A. Improvement of Academic. Self-concept Leading to Life-long Learning Apply study skills and test- taking strategies to improve academic achievement. DOK: Level 3

B. Self-management for Life- long Learning Apply time-management and organizational techniques necessary for assignments and/or task completion. DOK Level 3

RATIONALE and GOALS FOR THIS LESSON-

Having an understanding of physical and behavioral adaptations that help plants and animals survive in a given environment. Being able to see what microorganism look like and identify them in a drawing. This classification is important to helping scientists clearly identify any species. To study, observe, and microorganism concentrated conservation. It also assists as a way of remembering and differentiating the types of microorganism, classifying the relationship between different microorganisms, and providing precise names for them. Gives students a strong background in indentifying what a microorganism is.

ENDURING BIG IDEA:

Without basic microorganism there would be no life, without life, man does not exist. This is an investigation into living microorganism, so that each student has an understanding of what and microorganism looks like. Through the use of visual images, language arts, movement and science. Students will discover what a microorganism might look like through their own artwork.

Students will sketch the landscape of their ecosystem microorganism.  Students will find a component of their ecosystem and study it closely; by sketching it in detail, then writing about it.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS –

What is a microorganism?

Where dose your microorganism come from and in what ecosystem?

KNOWLEDGE BASE AND KEY CONCEPTS-

Term - "organism" (from Greek ὀργανισμός, organisms, from ὄργανον, organon, i.e. "Any living structure, such as a plant, animal, fungus or bacterium, capable of growth and reproduction".

Understand what a microorganism looks like in its true size.

Understand how artists create artwork within the fiber world.

OBJECTIVES-

1. The student will create a true size microorganism from a fiber media.

2. VOCABULARY- ecosystems, organism, sketch, landscape, survive, population, community, plant, animal, producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, prey, bacteria, plant, insect, extinct, unicellular organism, muiticellular organism, microscopic, microorganisms, cells, tissues, organs, plastids, algae, fungi, animals, life span, evolution, reproduction, horizontal gene and transfer.

3. Understand how artist create artwork within the fiber world.

LESSON VIGNETTE 

1.  Introducing the students to the lesson of living microorganism through a Powtoon presentation that sends them on a mission, just like “Mission Impossible”, your mission is to create a living microorganism and introduce them to the artist, and what the final project could look like. (5 Minutes)

2. Concluding with a VTS lesson of Katy Stone’s artwork. (15 Minutes)

3. Artist work (Shirley Boudreaux, Katy Stone, and L (5 – 10 Minutes)

3.  Make an art journal out of copy paper and floss. (30 Minutes)

4.  They will sit down and draw out what they investigated in their science class about organisms.  Then add vocabulary words and definitions. (20 Minutes)

5. Final – They will go back to the group mat.  Then, they will, by a show of hands, tell what was their favorite part of the lesson or what they enjoyed about it. (15 Minutes)

6. Clean Up (10 Minutes)

ASSESSMENTS/RUBRICS:

The students will go back to the group mat.  Then, they will, by a show of hands, tell what was their favorite part of the lesson or what they enjoyed about it. They will tell their partner, one at a time, about their own microorganism art journal. After each student has taken their turn.

After they have shared their art journal, they will write about it in their art journal about what they experienced in this lesson. This is using formative assessment by looking at each other’s work and summative assessment by writing about the project.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND ADAPTATIONS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS -

Students with special needs might need help with drawing out their microorganism. A larger pencil can be used to help with holding it. They may need help with identifying what a microorganism looks like and the wording. They can use a computer for the written assignments. They may have extra time to finish their drawing and for the investigation of their project. A teacher or aide can help with pouring the paint.

MATERIALS, TEACHING RESOURCES/REFERENCES-

Teaching resources:

The fiber artists are Shirley Boudreaux, Leisa Rich, and Katy Stone.   These three artists show the students three different viewpoints of what a microorganism looks like.  These artists work in the fiber world.

List of materials for this project:

Powtoon, power point, pencils, copy paper and color pencils.

TEACHER REFLECTION:

If the students are able to reflect on this project in a positive manner, then I would consider that to be a success.  Each student shows that he/she has pulled information from the arts and sciences to where they have an understanding of what a microorganism is.  They also  understand the relationship between being inside and/or outside the class by utilizing  their critical thinking skills on their field trip and in their homeroom science class.

List of indicators

They can write, talk and draw about what they learned through their art making process. The use of a pencil to draw a microorganism is evidence of hand to eye coordination. Working with paint colors that related to living microorganism and having an understanding of what fabric can be used for.

Lesson Plan Video

Comments for chapter 3

Ashley, thank you so much for sharing this TED talk. It was a very powerful video for me. A way to step back and re-think my place in this world we are in. It was a great opportunity for your students to do something like this in Columbia.  It could help them understand empathy. Using this way or some other way for them to reflect on what others are going through by stepping outside of their own problems and reconnecting with the world.

Good luck on finding ways for your students to reconnect to each other and for you, as the teacher, finding ways to grow with your students.

Emily

I think you have found the answer to why it’s hard for you and why you love reading. It’s all about finding that one simple answer that can help your student and just being there for them. A teacher needs to take the time to solve each problem as they arise. With each of our students we need to take that time to understand that each student is different and solving these problems can take time. Emily you are in the growing years as a teacher. Your students are helping you to find yourself. Just endure this journey and listen to what is being said and find your own way in the process.

Teaching as if life matters chapter 3

Loving the questions – relationship with our mind. On page 49, I too “want to know everything about everything.” I, as an artist, among other things am very curious person. I want to know why something is something? Just because we don’t know the answer right now, does not mean we cannot have the answer. Why is there just one correct answer?  The human mind can come up with an infinite number of answers to all questions.

If we intended not to ask the question “WHY”, how can we learn or understand something we don’t already have the answer to? “Why” is the gift that helps us to understand, or see things in a new light. Asking “Why” has been one of the things that has helped me to understand many things and why the world works as it does. I think that its not just children that want to know “why”, but as adults we want to know “why” too. So, “WHY” goes back to the human nature of curiosity to understand something.

On page 53, I love “That’s a darn good question – so good that I want to really think about it for a minute before attempting an answer.” If we all had this to draw back on and not answer the first thing that came out of our mouths, each of our imaginations could grow beyond just what was right in front of us. What if we had someone tell us this and let us, as children, have an understanding that its okay to ask.  What would we be asking next or what would we create next? On page 53 “trust that to be human is to have natural curiosity and to possess an innate desire to learn.” We all want to learn and understand the world around us and the easy way to do that is to ask WHY? Why do I have to give up so much of my family’s time to get what I want?  It’s because I have this growing capacity to let my art reach out in ways that I could never imagine before, that is why! Why, being the powerful question that it is, is a simple question to ask. If Einstein had not asked the questions to unlocking the mysteries of the universe, would we understand the next question in his field of study? No, it’s a building block that has us asking more questions once we have an answer to our question. We want to know it all, just in our own time.

When I started on my (MFA) Masters of Fine Art, my professors were always asking me Why, What, and How within my artwork. These are some of the most powerful words that anyone can think about. Sometimes we just have to step back from the problem and let the answer come to us, just don’t fight it.  Waiting can help us see the clarity that we may have our answers for. On page 71 I love “who might you talk to in your quest for clarity?” The answer for me is everyone.  It may take several people for you to find what you are seeking.  So ask everyone in your quest to find the answer.

Week #9 Comments

Jon

I also love where he turned the situation into an opportunity for them to be honest with themselves and each other.  Telling what is going on in their real lives. Seeing that each of us has a problem and that within the group setting there might be an answer or someone else going through the same thing.  This is just another tool for us teacher to understand his or her students.

We, as teachers, do have to be the people in this observation, plus have feelings or showing feelings to each and every student.  Also, remember that there are always needs, regardless if they are your own or your students.  Finding ways to be there for them is what a great teacher can do for his or her students.

Annette

Tom Shadyac, the director, has a documentary called “I AM”. It came out in 2010 and talks about what is wrong with our world and how we can improve both it and the way we live in it. The move has some very interesting questions that ask us to open our minds to new possibilities and to understand each other and come together as a group and develop or renew our communities, have kinship, and interconnecting humanity back together.  He also talks about the way we are on the path to separating ourselves from each other. Rethinking of ways to get back to the way we need to come together and create a different world. I think this might be a great opportunity for yours students to reflect on their negativity within the classroom and world.

Annette, I would love to add some words to your list.  These come to my mind when I think of a teacher. Some are: caring, mentor, coach, sounding board, performer, and friend.

Teaching as if Life Matters:

Did being in the school environment or a teacher wound me? Well let’s see from the question on page xii.

·      “The belief that you are not smart, not competent in learning”. I do feel that every student, no matter what school you went to, will have these feeling and its just part of being human. We question why and what we do.

     “The belief that your abilities are fixed and cannot be improved with effort, coaching, intervention, or self-understanding”. No, I do not feel that my abilities are fixed or can't be improved upon. I'm learning every minute of the day and my abilities change every week. Every year there are always exciting things new to discover. It’s even exciting to find things that, we as human beings, are always adapting to find new ways that can change within our environment.  The human soul needs this to be able to grow, so that we understand who we were, are, and where we're going.

      “Painful memories of shaming experiences in school that lives on in you as generalized anxiety and a low appetite for intellectual risk taking”. I don't like to speak in public because I was teased for how I spoke.  I couldn't pronounce all the words correctly and it did affect me, but that is something that I'm trying to overcome. I still speak in public, even though it makes me nauseous, and I have a hard time doing it.  It’s something that I’m striving  to overcome everyday.

      ”A tendency to classify others, and yourself, into dualistic, reductive categories: “smart/dumb,’’artistic/not artistic”. Of course, I sometimes classify myself as non-artistic or not smart enough, I think we all go through this.

   

          “A generalized loss of pleasure in learning. Of course, I find a loss in pleasure when doing artwork.  It depends on what's going on my life, and if the artwork is not going right. I can't think through it or get it done.  We all lose that pleasure of play that we have in the artwork from time to time.

  

      “And finally, unprocessed feelings about education and learning that you enact as an adult in your interactions with your own children or students”. I have a feeling that we all have memories of teachers that we didn't like.  Maybe something happened and we interacted with them negatively or were scolded in the classroom.  Many students carry these memories throughout their adult lives and retain a bad impression of education into their adulthood.

    

      “It is the communication and listening skills, more than anything else, that determine the quality of her recommend habits of mind (dualistic thinking, labeling, judging, blaming) create communication styles that lead to separation and dysfunction in our relationships.” Wow, what a powerful statement! Assisted if we don't have communication with our students how are we supposed to determine if they are succeeding. If we are succeeding in the creation of a lifelong relationship in their learning, we have to have communication.  If not, this is where dysfunctional labeling and blaming comes from.  We need to really think about what we're saying to our students.

On page 124 “Transcending Fear: The Practice of Truthspeaking”. I have been on both sides of this story. Being the teacher and not knowing why your students haven't done their homework or what is behind that reason.  It makes you so angry to be a teacher sometimes. I have also been on the student side where you're overwhelmed. You feel like you're sinking. The statement right there really, JUMPED OFF THE PAGE for me. Because, I always feel like I'm below the waterline and can't even grab or hold onto something to save me. You know that place, where you have so much homework and so much going on in your life that you don't see an end to it all.  You might feel like you're so behind and try to catch up you feel like you are getting behind. What a powerful message this is for anybody that has been in the same place. We all need to reconnect with what is going on in each other’s lives, before we make judgments. If it’s our students, or if we are the teacher, we need to be able to relate to each other to understand or have empathy. Without all of this how can we become better teachers? I had to share that in that section of the book I was amazing and moving to me.

Reflection Log #1.1

Week 8 Commets

Clayton

I’m in love with the layering that is going on within your piece.  All of those vibrant colors and different imagery you have incorporated into your portrait is amazing. It shows what is going on inside of you.  The way you have incorporated all this different imagery helps in representing yourself to us.

Art needs to have discomfort within itself. That uncomfortable place is what we need to learn. We need to make whatever is in our minds and see the change or see it in other ways. Its what comes from that uncomfortable place that helps us change or changes the work. It's a great place to discover something new. In Kathy's class we talked about how “play” can help in that uncomfortable place. This is where an artist’s work can change, you might want to thinking about that within your work.

Ashley

Sometimes we have to step outside of what makes us comfortable and find new ways to make art. The use of cardboard is a great project.  Your students, from the way you talked about them in this post, would probably, love to do a unit on cardboard artists. I have seen some of the most amazing artwork come from cardboard. I have a question for you Ashley. Would you use this experience and make this project in your own classroom? Here is a website of five artists working with cardboard. This might help if you wanted to integrate this into your lesson with your students.

http://weburbanist.com/2008/11/28/cardboard-art-and-sculptures/

Week 8: Artist, Teaching, and Students with muppet me. Lol

"Muppet me" 

is made out of thread on the sewing machine by using a free motion sewing.

Week 7: Playing, Creativity, Possibility; & New School Art Styles: the Project of Art Education; Post Modern Principles:

Jon, What if you don’t make art ever again? 

Discomfort is where we grow.  It’s the place that makes us feel different. It’s where we want to change and make things better. So if you have to boil it down to something, make sure you are enjoying the process and letting that process find a new home with new meaning. We all have a hard time being the one in front of the group. I have a very difficult time being there. Time will give us the confidence to show that we are great artists/teachers for our students. So Jon if you are doing this for yourself and for your art, then please do not let anything get in your way!

Ashley, Great Video

Student led projects can be some of the most meaningful things that a group of young people can do together. They learn to find ways to communicate with each other and find self worth that lives with them throughout life.

Right now I’m doing a project that has the student led curriculum for the semester that starts off with them brainstorming with what they want to change in their school, community or world.  This would be a great project for Mississippi students to rethink and remake their own community into something better in the long-run. Teaching them to grow and to help themselves.

Olivia Gude interview, she talks about playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X56zkWfXCUo

Playing, Creativity, Possibility:

 The very first paragraph between the teacher and her student goes right to why PLAY needs to be in the classroom.  ANXIETY “I don’t know what to do,” Jane responds when told to get down to work. “It’s easy,” the teacher says for the 27th time today. “Just think of things that don’t go together and put them in your painting.” The student whines, “I can’t think of anything.” The frustrated (and exhausted) teacher offers a plethora of suggestions that are each met with a disconsolate sigh.”

Suggesting what a student should do without showing it to them first, through the interaction of play, can stop us all. I know that, for me, when I start a new project that I have never explored before, it is hard to begin if we don’t understand where the work might go. For me, I like to PLAY around with different ideas, materials and see what can work until I find what the work is telling me. I would also have a huge amount of anxiety trying to work in that environment.

We have to surrender to the process of making art through play, creativity and the imagination that each of us has. When did we lose that in our lives? As artists I think we try to hold on to that and that’s why some artists are never serious about life. They are committed to their art, but are they committed to themselves? We as teachers need to nurture that part inside of each student to allow them to surrender to the artist within them so that they can develop a creative soul and hold on to them self’s.

Michael an artist uses candles and smoke to create his artwork:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2552354/The-incredible-paintings-created-using-SMOKE-Artist-directs-carbon-atoms-canvas-create-amazingly-realistic-portraits.html

The investigations that each of us do when making artwork. This is a way we see into that unknown world that might suggest a different outcome than the one we first thought. This is what play is all about, workshoping through ideas and collaborating with yourself to find new artwork. This is needed for our students to see within the classroom and within ourselves in that classroom. This would help them understand that investigation is a fun way to see something new. Rogers’s talk about the openness of expression in what we create and that it is deeply rooted in finding solutions within the work. They can be stimulating and surprising to each of us. If we work through each new process and surrender to the creative activities, we will have the freedom to grow.

Post Modern Principles:

At first, I had a really hard time understanding where Dow was going with the 7 + 7 principles.  Olivia Gude starts talking about her list of contemporary art education curricula using more than 18 principles. I started to understand this article. Where she talks about the crisscross and overlapping the principles that actual art in the contemporary world came from. Page 12 “Art examples and projects in school art curricula should not be reductive representations of theoretical principles, but should reflect the complexity of actual art.” This is where the play comes in.  If we stay with the 7 + 7 principles, we are not letting our students or ourselves have a way to investigate different ways to do artwork.  Without that we do not have any self-expression to create. Page 12 “ Hot modernism, characterized by artists such as Duchamp and the Dadaists, has not been adequately in K-12 art discourses despite the face that such artist are far more likely to be cited as influential to today’s art world”. I feel that they helped pave the way for contemporary artists having a bigger voice with what art or the art story has to tell.  We always have to remember where art started and understand the path it has taken.  So, that our art can stand and find its place among them.

blog back to Emily and Ashely

Me to Emily: Videotaping is a great tool that can be used many ways for you, students and finding new ways of doing art. Teachers can notice what their students are doing or not doing and help change or re-work their programs. Emily just standing in front of the camera can be intimidating, but for me it’s a great tool for me to overcome what we do not like.
Adding the student’s survey into the curriculum maybe on a weekly or monthly basis could change the way we teach. I have been thinking of adding a survey at the end of the week to see what is on my student’s minds and pull from their thoughts to make me a better teacher.
What if you add the two group methods to the lesson plans as part of the lesson that the students do. They can chat about what is going on in the classroom. This way you and the student see the outcome. This could also be turned into a class art project that reflected back on through the progress that happens within a time frame. This way you have the data of their achievement within learning controlled group. This shows through their own artwork and what happened within that time frame. I might add something like this within my own lesson plans in the future.

Me to Ashely: Letting our past influence the way we see things can be great opportunities for teachers and students to see what the human mind can do. When we add each of these experiences to the curriculum or when we allow them to guide us through each different experience, these can be powerful ways for us to connect with our students. Ashley, I also try to identify with my students to help me understand them better.  In this way, I can make connects with them so that I can tweak the curriculum to help them become better students. You would not be a teacher if you were not passionate, caring and understanding.  Its being a real person that will help you connect with the students, they can smell blood in the water if you know what I mean. Having that interaction with students is a great form of relationship. You evaluating yourself and then finding the answer with the help of your students is something that I want to improve on. Having that one on one time works very well.

Blog Week 6:

Ken Robinson TED talks “How schools kill creativity”.

The gift of imitation, how true that we are trying to educate children for the future, because right now we don’t know what the future is. All children are born artists and they grow out of this. Wow oh wow. If we did not grow out of it, where would we be?  This can boggle the mind. The growth that could happen within just one person is great. We, as a whole, could be amazing THINKing so outside of the box all the time. We, as the human race, could do anything and we would value everyone.

http://www.ted.com/talks/emily_pilloton_teaching_design_for_change

Emily Pilloton “Teaching design for change”.

I do understand what its like to go to school in a small town, where only the best and richest students get out or go for higher education. Coming from rural Mississippi, we had firsthand knowledge of what its like to see this. Without education these students do not leave the area or have opportunities to change their lives. I love this list that helped redesign rural schools that offer ways to help students find success.

1. Design through action

2. Design with, not for

3. Design systems, not stuff

4. Document, share, and measure

5. Start locally, and scale globally

6. Build

Using design within the public education community goes right in and helps students have an atmosphere of learning. Redesigning education to fit what or where students are within their own community so they can learn. I do have a burning passion that goes right along with changing education in the rural education system. This is a great project that can work within the rural school systems, but also within all schools.

Blog accompanying the video reflect on:

How does your artistic process echo your what you imagine your teaching process to be?

The way that I work through new artwork is also the way that I would work through teaching a lesson to my students. First, what will be the connection that I want to use? Second, what will the materials be that help tell or talk about the connection. Then it’s off to do research that can inform or help me understand other artists that have worked through this connection or with what materials before. Then, at this time, I like to draw out what I see formulating in my mind. Then there will be a lot of reworking or tweaking until I see it coming together. This is a great time to have friend or classmate over to talk about the work, seeing what they might be seeing within the work. Having a notebook and pen to take notes is a great thing here. It’s a way to go back a re-read what was said then and to work and re-think the connection with the materials. Finally, understand that artwork can and most of the time has a mind of its own and sometimes with take you to new place within your own artistic growth.

I need to have other voices that help me think through what I am working on.  I need a sounding board to see the work outside of the box that I am working within my own mind. I would ask my students to do the same within the classroom, through one on one discussions and classroom critiques. Thinking and re-thinking about the what, why, and how about the work is also a great way to have the students and yourself re-think about what the work is saying.