Week #4 Blog: Visual Metaphor

Visual Metaphor 

I'm the Heart and Soul in my classroom

I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;

Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;

Ever unreeling them — ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,

Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,— seeking the spheres, to connect them;

Till the bridge you will need, be form’d — till the ductile anchor hold;

Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

                             

                             

                                               

“So much of teaching is rooted in who we are and how we perceive the world.” I believe in this statement. I also believe that a classroom should be a home away from home for each and every student. If they do not feel that they are safe and welcomed within the classroom, they will not be able to do their very best work. Home is the place we get our beliefs and start to have conceptions and an understanding of the world around us.  So within our classroom practices we, as teachers, need to have a relationship with our students that provide a productive learning environment. We also need to remember that just like our students, we are learning the world around us too. These experiences, which they are going through, will show that the knowledge they have learned in the classroom was vital and they carried this knowledge on in their own methods of making art.

If we have values in what we are doing, our students will see this and transfer those practices into their work. On page 26 Handal and Lauvs talk about the framework to maintain three theories that help within the structure of teaching, “personal experiences, transmitted knowledge, and core values.” These are determined by an “individual’s central values, personal experiences, and received knowledge.” Each and every one of our students comes from different backgrounds as we do. With this in mind, we cannot take how we see the world, but we have to step back and ask ourselves is this normal for this group of students or is there something going on. This is where we, as teachers, find the value of knowledge in personal experiences and use our own concepts to help them through what they need. Now, I’m not saying that every student needs this every time there is a problem; this is why we have to get to know our students.  We have to get to know their families on a personal individual level.

We have all had experiences with teachers that helped us or harmed us. Coming from different location in the United States, I have had teachers that did not understand my interests or me and they did not want to understand my background.  I have had some amazing teachers.  Regardless of what was going on in my life, they were there for me and made sure I was successful on my chosen path in life. One teacher, that made a big impression on me, was Tom Nawrocki. He is an amazing international printmaker.  He took his own time and money to make sure that I, as a student, went beyond that place that I was at. To this day, I know that is why I am where I am today. He willingness to step outside of just being a teacher and becoming a mentor has had a positive mark on me.  Professor Nawrocki began to develop early signs of Alzheimer’s and retired after I graduated.  He gave me the tools to find my own way. Now, Proof Nawrocki did not always have students that were artistically talented.   Daily he would have students breaking out into emotional outbursts in his classes.  I had the opportunity to see him take a student aside and help them through a hard day.

Summing things up here, we, as educators, have to change with the times and within our own classrooms. We have to learn new ways to encourage our students. It’s our job to help them become better people and better artists.