Blog 22

Discuss your experiences in Art 307. What have they contributed to your understanding of Art? of the role of art in learning? of what the relationship between education and learning is? of the role of the teacher in this process?


In Art 307, I was able to learn more about child development, growth, and issues in art education. How can you best engage your students? How can you manage your classroom? I especially learned a lot about the age group (8-10 years old) that we worked with in our peer workshop. Learning to document your teaching, I think, is important because if you record your impressions of your lessons and reflect on them, you'd be better able to see what worked and what didn't work in your planning. In planning lessons for your students, you want to research and understand what might be the best teaching methods to meet the needs of a variety of learning styles, like visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learners. As a teacher you also need to understand your students' backgrounds, and their physical and psychological needs. Considering learner styles and backgrounds allows you to better understand a child and how they will approach art. The role of art in education is to allow the child to express themselves and have the freedom of choice and creativity to create a piece of work to their liking, not necessarily what the teacher wants or expects. Art is a spontaneous process; you never know what the results might be! Art also reflects and explores the values inherent in a culture, so it is vital in understanding a culture. Education's role is to provide situations and experiences where learning can occur, and it is the teacher's job to provide the framework within which learning can best occur.

Puzzle documentation 4

Now that we finished our puzzle project, I came and helped out another group. I was mostly observing and looking at the different pieces because it had different colours and shapes compared to my group puzzle. What I notice that was different about this group was that they grouped similar colours into bags. I found it a little bit harder for me because I was not able to see the pieces properly, so I kind of started to lay out the colours that might match a specific part of the puzzle. Eventually, the group finished their puzzle as well, and I did help out, but because I wasn't there for the entire project, there wasn't the same sense of completion in me that I had when my group finished - I guess it highlights that we invest something in a project when we are there from the start - it becomes ours, and it's human nature to want to see it through to completion.

Puzzle documentation 3

We finally finished our puzzle! I find that when we were closer to finishing the puzzle, we were more focused because we were eager to see it completed! It was a little bit depressing when we found we were missing one puzzle piece. Still, we all felt the relief of seeing the entire puzzle finished. Yay!

Blog 23

Reflect on the experience of making a work of art with others.

In our collaborative work of art we were able to compromise and accomodate at least part of everyone's ideas into the work. Still, not everyone's ideas were treated equally, and honestly individual efforts were not equal as well. The process of collaborating was valuable, however, just because it forced relatively individualistic people to compromise. Another advantage of working with others is that it allows you to be able to socialize and become familiar with other people in the field. This creates a greater sense of an art community, working towards common goals. I believe that once you get to know others more, you are more comfortable with creating a work of art with them. You learn to let go of at least part of the process, but still maintain a sense that you have ownership. The process of putting artwork together requires everyone's help; therefore, you don't feel that you're alone when problems or issues arise. There is always someone to bounce ideas off of, or ask for advice. It is an engaging experience.

Puzzle documentation 2

When observing my group members I found that they are "in their own little world". We worked on the parts that we felt like working on and if someone needed help to look for a piece, then the rest of the group members would keep their eyes out for that piece while still working on their part. It was like a game of concentration. Sometimes it could be a cooperative project and other times it could be individualized. I found that when I am doing the puzzle by myself I was able to focus on that area and being able to look for pieces easier because I don't feel confined by others. When there were other group members, I spent my time helping others look for individual pieces; I only put pieces into the puzzle if I knew they were a match.

Blog 21

What has this experience of working collaboratively added to your understanding of what one learns through art?



When working collaboratively, I have learnt that being able to observe others and see some of the things that they do working, or not, allows you to transform the experience into your work. When you are working on a collaborative art project you can expect the learner to observe others and then extend that knowledge and experience into their individual artistic growth. A student learns how others handle specific challenges, contributes to the creation of new solutions and new opportunities for their own and others' growth. Individuals have strengths and areas of growth, and a collaboration allows for artists to share and contribute. And not just skills and techniques are shared - so are attitudes and viewpoints, which shows how art can help an individual become a more rounded member of society.

Blog 20

Where do our notions of visual art as a solitary activity come from? What are the benefits and limitations of engaging in collaborative works of art?



Historically, we art taught that artists are solitary individuals, often misunderstood by society, who struggle to release their creative vision. They are inherently solitary. I believe that our modern notions of visual art as a solitary activity comes from our early childhood experiences. Ever since preschool or elementary, we were taught that art is individualistic and everyone's art is unique. Art was introduced to us as an independent activity. Creating our own art shows, accomplishing our own achievements in skills and techniques, and completing a piece of work shows our level of success in making art.

One of the benefits of creating collaborative works of art is that the work includes more than one artistic style and idea. It teaches us to cooperate with others, and compromise so that their ideas and our own are incorporated into one piece of artwork. A limitation in collabortive art is that it becomes harder to express individual artistic impressions or ideas. As a child or an adult, you would feel uncomfortable when someone modifies or changes "your" artwork, because then it is no longer yours.

Blog 19

Reflect on your time with the child you worked with. What succeeded and why- refer to Dewey and other readings? What did not succeed and why not- again, try to find a reason based on the readings you have done for this class. If you could work with this child again, what would you like to do next time to develop what you today's experience?

I think that, for the most part, the lesson was successful. Amy (my child) was able to build on past experiences while engaging in a new experience, like Dewey suggests. She had an experience that she found interesting, valuable, and fun, and was eager to continue on to the oher extensions I had planned that were not necessarily art-based, which I thought showed another level of success. What did not work was the initial project I had planned, which shows the importance of both flexibility and experience, or at least learning from it, in the teacher. My project had a lot of extensions what would develop further ideas in the study of Canadian aboriginal cultures, writing, and drama. I think it would have been interesting and fun to have continued with the project!

Blog 18

How does learning in, through or about art change when we begin to look at moving beyond a standard, Western European based, middle class curriculum? What do these "special" cases reveal to us about the central issues for our practice as art educator?

To a large degree, I think this question is answered in the previous blog. When we move beyond curriculum, the focus changes from general skills and art appreciation to individualized growth. Art "students" at this point can grow or not, become more skilled or not, appreciate something new or not, as they choose - what matters is whether the experience is valuable to the individual student, and if it hasn't been, then they don't have to pursue it any farther. I think this points out both the strengths and flaws of the education system in general. Its strengths is that it provides students with a general platform within which to pursue individual interesting and goals in virtually any direction. Its weaknesses, however, lie within the limitations of generalization, budget, and societal values that are contained within the culture of both society and the educational system. What do we as art teachers teach? Is it skills? Values? Appreciation? Straight curriculum? Difficult choices, and often it is left to the individual teacher to decide where to put her or his energy and focus.

Blog 17

What does learning in a community-based setting afford children?

What are they able to learn in a community-based setting that they would not be able to learn in a school setting? What does teaching in a community-based setting afford the educator? What can one do in a community-based setting that one could not do in a school?

A community-based art program allows children to explore art without the restrictions and covenants based on a formal school setting. The instructor does not have to worry about curricular or cross-curricular goals - instead, the instructor can focus on whatever they'd like the students to experience, or maybe focus on what the class itself would like to experience. I'm not sure they would learn more in a coomunity-based setting, but students would learn differently, and there would be less of a focus on results. The students would get to learn (or not) at their own pace, and generally there would be no "grading" accompanying their work. Most community-based settings are focused more on introduction to art or an art genre, skill building, and personal enjoyment.

Blog 16

Describe your most meaningful learning experience in a museum or art gallery. What elements made it so. Relate this experience to Dewey's notion of a "good" experience.



I think that the most meaningful learning experience I had was when I went to the Glenbow Museum for the first time. I was most intrigued by the "Art of Asia" sculptures because I became intensely interested in the history of each individual god's statue and awed by the fine craftsmanship. It opened my eyes to different media in sculpture, and brought culture into art in a meaningful way. I think this fits Dewey's notion of a "good" experience because it was interesting and enlightening - I learned as I experienced.

Blog 15

What issues arose as you tested your lesson plans? Why did these issues arise? Can you ever fully anticipate every detail of the situation you will be working in? What role does planning play in a responsive teaching approach?





One of the issues that came up in the lesson plans was being able go through with your ideas and knowing later that it wouldn't work because the materials used would be frustrating for the child when they are working with it. When planning your lesson plan you want to incorporate all the things about your child and get them to be engaged in your project. Honestly, the issue arose because of my lack of experience working with the particular media, and finding out that it could not easily incorporate the goals I had in mind. Otherwise, things went smoothly. No, I do not feel any teacher, no matter how experienced, can anticipate every outcome. I think that good planning allows you to be responsive to changes in the situation. If you're trying something new, for example, you'd better have a backup in case something goes wrong! Teachers need to be flexible, and change things up or modify things if something isn't working.

Blog 14

What is your drawing history? Where have your notions of the role of drawing in art come from? How do you manage your "drawing anxiety?" After reading Kalin's chapter, describe how you might mentor an anxious draw-er into the joy of mark-making.





I always enjoyed drawing ever since I was in elementary. My drawings were always mostly representational, and a lot of times they were mimetic. I remember when I was in grade 1 or 2, I would draw animated cartoons likes the Flintstones or Bugs Bunny in my sketchbook and then afterwards colour it in with different colours (but not necessarily the colours that the cartoon actually is!) I was really into colouring books because I liked to explore and play around with the different colours that I could make with pencil crayons, markers, and watercolours. After that, I always enjoyed making art in class. What I found sad is that when you are in elementary school, you were able to explore art on a more regular basis, but once you reach junior high those things are not as important anymore unless you are taking an art option, and that is often only allowed for one semester.

I think that my ideas about the role of drawing in art comes from the fact that I was an independent child who wasn't able to go out as much, like other children might have, so I would sit at home and draw and colour because those were the things that I enjoyed doing. Drawing became the gateway into other forms of art for me, as it seemed the most natural, and in some ways (when I was a child, at least), the least technical.

How do I manage my "drawing anxiety?" This situation never seemed to happen to me that much. I guess I could say that I always convinced myself that I was as good as any other people; therefore, drawing anxiety wass not there much. In highschool, however, I found that my art teacher was not as supportive as she probably should have been. I was doing a really good job on a "pencil crayon on black paper" project of my face, and she told me I was a sibling of one of the other girls in my art class, because that other girl was considered to be the better drawer by my art teacher. It may have been an attempt at praise, but it came off as sounding like "normally, you're not as good as her." That really bummed my self-esteem, but I got over it because I believe that I am good in my own, individual style.



I think that, according to Kalin's chapter, I would mentor an anxious draw-er into the joy of mark-making by allowing them to close their eyes and draw the things that they imagined inside their head. It allows them to not worry whether or not their drawing is perfect or good but just focusing on how they feel and enjoy when they imagine those image in their head. Afterward, you complement about how interesting it is to draw something without seeing it even if it's not realistic. The artist woulf be focusing on feelings instead of mimetic skill, for example, and gain a sense of freedom from that.



The type of questions that I would ask the parent of the child's learning characteristics would be:

What are the things that the child enjoys doing in school? What subjects do they not like? How do they deal with things when they come across a problem? What is the child's art history? Are they confident in making art? What are the materials the child has explored in art? What would you like them to explore? What are the things you want the child to explore and develop more? Does the child have any developmental issues?

Blog 13

What were the benefits of the peer teaching events? How would you incorporate peer teaching in an elementary classroom?





I think that the benefits of the peer teaching events were that we were able to create a lesson plan and test drive it with others in the class. The important part was that we were able to see what aspects didn't work and what components did. Also, the questions that comes up during the peer teaching could help you understand more about developmental growth for a specific age range. Having peer teaching events helped me gain ideas from others that might improve my lessons and future planning. It gave me an opportunity to gain confidence in my teaching in an actual classroom setting. In the future, peer teaching would allowethe students to incorporate group communication and cooperation skills, and learn to express concepts and skills in ways that others can understand - an important communication skill. I would incorporate peer teaching in an elementary classroom by grouping the students and allowing them to teach each other something and having students share their ideas.

Blog 12

Discuss the importance of documentation to teaching and to a child's learning. What are the challenges of documentation to the classroom teacher? What are some strategies that would help address these challenges?


Documentation is important as a teacher because it helps you to understand the child's learning needs and growth. Documenting the child helps you as a teacher to look back and understand what problems arose, or if you weren't able to pick out the problems at the time, you might be able to see the problems more clearly when you look back at the documentation. It gives you the chance as a teacher to reflect on your teachings and to improve a lesson the next time you run it. Also you get to see how a child grows over time.


I think that the most important challenges of documentation to a classroom teacher is that you have to manage a lot of students, and having to document all of them is a hard task. In-class documentation is especially difficult when you are focused on whether some students might need help or if the classroom behaviour level is being maintained.


I definitely think a way to address these challenges is to have parents or community volunteers help out during class. They could help out with the documentation process by taking pictures of individual students or groups while you are teaching, or monitoring the process while you are documenting.

My Monster Sculpture Lesson

For this lesson I created a mystery box with an object inside of it. The students were to touch the object without looking at it and feel the shape, size, and texture. The students then incorporated that object as a part of a monster. I let the students decide how they are going to transfer the shape, size, and texture into the monster that they were making.



My group successfully used the object in their monster sculptures. They got to use a variety of media like play doh, feathers, sea shells, wires, and popsicle sticks. If I were to change one of the medium, I wouldn't use play doh because it is not strong enough to hold the structure, but we did talk about how we could make it stronger. We also discussed additional functional problems, including creating a frame and then adding material to it, or making it balanced and not top heavy so it wouldn't fall over. These would be problems that I would want the students to explore and solve to understand the media that they have in front of them as well as the entire design process.



The age group I chose to create this project for is 8-10. I think this lesson is appropriate for that age group because they have opportunites for creativity and exploration, and are given choice in both materials and form. There's appropriate teacher guidance while at the same time the students have some say in what they create. The level of problem solving is also age-appropriate because it is not so overwhelming they will begin to feel frustration.



If I were to extend this into other subject areas, I would tie this lesson into social studies, where students in this age group learn about aboriginal mythology. I could also tie this in to social topics, like identity of the self and cultural identity.

Blog 11

What are the benefits and limitations of integrating the arts throughout the elementary school curriculum? What issues are you encountering as you plan your unit? How do you think these issues might present themselves in the classroom situation? How are you addressing these issues now? How will you address them in the classroom?


The benefit of integrating art throughout the curriculum is that it helps reach students with different learning styles, especially kinesthetic and visual learners. A limitation of integrating art is that art becomes a tool to teach another aspect of curriculum. We can lose sight of teaching art for specific art purposes. Often I found that when I am planning a lesson, it's difficult to keep sight of specific art objectives when I'm attempting to also cover goals from another subject. Some other issues that might show up is how is the integrated curricula going to meet the child learning needs, and will it create interest in the child. I think that when applying these to classroom situation, the issues becomes more difficult because you have to think about more than one child; twenty different learning styles must be addressed in the best ways possible. The way that I would address these issues now is to plan well by getting to know my students learning styles and address them in my unit planning. In a classroom, I think that trying to plan lessons so that they meet the needs of different learning styles as often as possible, and not just one, is important. I also realize, however, that it will not always be possible.

Blog 10

Discuss the relationship between popular culture and art. Why is it important to provide children with a range of media from traditional/historic media to contemporary/popular art media?


Children have to be able to experience and express what they see/hear/feel in the world around them. Pop culture is an essential component for many young students as they are influenced by the trends of the day. In many cases, pop culture IS art, and vice-versa. At the same time, children also need to be able to experience the art, culture, and ideals that have endured over time. A lot of popular culture disappears quickly, which does not necessarily lessen its value or impact, but students need to understand the transitory nature of some popular culture. Allowing them to engage with traditional or historic media allows the to experience something that haas endured, and then asks them to explore WHY it has endured or stayed valuable to a culture.

Blog 9

In Kalin's chapter, we are given some suggestions for creating a safe (physically, emotionally, and socially) environment in which children can learn in, through and about art. Look at the guidelines on pg. 154-155. Describe how you might address each of these guidelines with the child you will be working with.

1. Establish a sense of security through consistently dealing with students in a fair and balanced way using persuasion rather than power or threat to solve problems

• Consistency is key; I would make sure I would deal with each student in an equitable manner while understanding and managing that each student is an individual. I would give them positive comments about their work by telling them that they are doing a great job; by doing this, you give the students confidence when they have a problem. Telling them the possiblities of solving a problem and being enthusiastic about it is also a key, so that they are not concentrating on the frustrating aspects of a situation

2. Set up parameters for class interaction and limits on behaviour.

• I would set up rules of how I would expect the students to behave. As a teacher, you are always around the students to monitor different behaviours to prevent them from getting out of control before something inappropriate happens, or reacting to inapproriateness with a reasonable but firm response. I would do that by using non-verbal cues first, like eye contact, to let them know that you are aware of their behaviour and giving them a chance to stop. This would be dealing with situations in a calm and quiet way without getting other students attention. If a non-verbal cue is not enough, however, I would then progress to direct verbal communication of what I would expect, and deal with the situation from there.

3. Allow students adequate time and instruction so that they can have the opportunity to develop a sense of competence in particular art activities.

• I would instruct them at the beginning of the art activity so that they know what is expected to be done at the end. You don't want to rush the student through the development of the art experience. Setting appropriate timelines, though, also help the students focus and plan. I would make sure to leave an appropriate amount of time for each activity!

4. Provide immediate and meaningful feedback during the formative stages of learning so that students know what they can do well and how they can improve.

• Giving the students positive feedback about their art work allows the student to be confident and encourage them that they can do art very well. When you see where the students could improve their work you give them suggestions of how they can improve without giving them any negative vibe.

5. Strive for a sense of connectedness within the class.

• Talking to the children and getting them involved and excited about the things that they are doing builds your relationship with them. Both sides are happy and enthusiastic. Getting students to celebrate their own work and the work of others, and working on colllaborative projects, also builds a sense of community within the classroom.

6. Show respect for individual differences across cultures, religions, learning styles, race, gender, and thinking by using activities, language, and visuals that support student diversity.

• Helping them understand that everyone is different and unique, and that diversity makes all of us special, is important. Allowing students a chance to speak, demonstrate, and work with culturally diverse materials allows for respect and tolerance to grow. We live in a multicultural country where there are many ethic groups. Showing respect to others mean others will respect you.

7. Develop a feeling of belonging by letting students collaborate and bond with a variety of peers under various circumstances.

• I would form the students into groups where they get to know other people besides their friends, allowing them to communicate and cooperate with each other. Groups would change all the time, and hopefully students would have a chance to "shine" in different circumstances, enhancing their self-worth.

8. Focus on the postive and build on students' unique strengths so that students will persevere in their artistc endeavours.

• Again, giving them positive feedback lets them know that you are aware of their abilities and helps them build self-esteem. Allowing students some choice in projects and assignments allows them to build and showcase their individual strengths.

9. Be caring, respectful, and nurturing at all times.

• Showing that you care and respect the students allows them to build self confidence and lets them know that they will have someone to help guide them if they need it. Providing opportunities for students to be successful allows them to grow both intellectually and emotionally.
  
  

Blog 4

Questions :

5) How will you create a holistic portrait of the learners in your classes? What will you need to know about them, and how will you apply your knowledge?

This is a difficult question! I think that a holistic portrait of the students in my class can only be gained through experience and knowledge of them over time. Kerlavage states that the cognitive, emotial/moral, social, language, physical/perceptual, and aesthetic development of the student must be considered to gain a holistic understandingof each student, and I think this level of information requires intensive and long-term experience (I want to say "exposure") with the child. As we see examples of their actions behaviours, ways of doing things, and ways of thinking, we can batter assess what "developmental level" they have reached. I find some irony that I am considering this article after looking at the problems with a developmental model of art in the last blog - once again, we cannot seem to assess learning without relying on "levels". I do, however, think that the more we understand each child as an individual, with their individual levels of development, the better we can tailor our expectations of growth within the child. This should also lead to a greater understanding of the child's individual learning styles and areas for growth, and make it so I can adapt my teaching style to the needs of my class and the individuals within the class.

6) As a teacher, why do you think the knowledge of holistic development is important in providing appropriate instruction for your students?

Again, as mentioned in the last blog, I do not think we can just teach developmental stages of art to children. A holistic view of the learner allows us to pinpoint strengths and areas of growth within the child, and deal with them (when possible!) on a child-by-child basis as well as tailor class instruction to the needs of the learners. It also allows us to highlight where potential "roadblocks" might occur, and what the causes of them might be.

Blog 8

Discuss the role of art in children's development. How are the cognitive and fine motor skills developed in art essential to the holistic development of a child? How does the art educator respond to the individual needs of the learner while ensuring the continuity of experience?

Art creates opportunities to view and express concepts of life in different ways than the other subject areas. Kerlavage speaks of how art processes influence and develop cognitive abilities as the child moves from representation and symbology, to spacial awareness and visual accuracy, and finally to logical continuity and the abstract. These cognitive processes are essential to a full understanding of the world, and for individuals to reach their full potential. The same form of process occurs with fine motor skill development. Art provides opportunities for students to develop increasing sophisticated and controlled fine motor skills, which allows us all to feel better about the people who fix our watches and operate on our brains! Perhaps more importantly, artistic endeavours provide a variety of ways to develop motor skills, as writing is vastly different than colouring, brush strokes, or manipulating clay. These activities provide a greater depth of experience, and chances for individual growth in the student.

The art educator must consider the needs of the class and the individuals when creating lessons. Hopefully, the teacher then allows for those individual differences, and can differentiate instruction, media, time frame, and/or expectations as needed to meet the needs of both the classroom goals and the abilities/desires of the students. Often the situation itself is not the problem - the teacher just needs to be flexible about how the student approaches that new situation, and respond with appropriate guidance and help when necessary.

Blog 7:

Why do we assess learning in art? How can learning to self-assess in art transfer to other subject areas? Life endeavours?

We assess learning in art because we need some way to quantify growth in students, and thus we need a system that indicates when growth had occured. The values of our society often place emphasis on some form of growth, whether its growth as a society, as a "bottom line", or as an individual, and the value of growth has become intermixed with definitions of success. Somewhat unfortunately, it seems we as educators have to indicate to the different levels of society how growth is occurring in our students; otherwise, how can someone know if we are doing a "good job" of educating?

Learning to be able to assess yourself helps students to learn and improve other academic subject areas, because it forces them to evaluate whatever they are creating by some criteria, often externally created, which says whether their work is "good" or not. Like it or not, society judges its members, evaluating their "worth" and the worth of the things they do or create. Self-assessment allows for reflection and possible correction along a process. This same process of evaluation can help improve virtually any aspect of life, as long as a person is willing to be honest about their goals, difficulties, and strengths.

Blog 6 :

Discuss the importance of teaching art as a core subject. Why is it important to ensure that there is time set aside in the cirriculum, resources (teachers with art background, supplies, community resources) and space provided for art as a separate subject?



Teaching art as a core subject provides the students with the chance to view the world in different ways, and a variety of new avenues with which to express themselves. Having art integrated in other subjects can be good (and in fact, might even be essential depending on the student), but it can also be problematic when we begin to lose the value of art as process and exploration. The danger is that art can become the vehicle which "drives around" the other (perhaps viewed as "more important") aspects of the curriculum. What happens when art is only used to demonstrate a social studies idea, or a science concept? It is similar to language arts in a combined Humanities program, where the danger is that the language arts goals serve as a way of representing the social studies program. There are too many lessons and opportunities for growth and exploration in art to have it solely serve the expressive needs of other aspects of the curriculum. In fact, I would argue that sometimes the exploration NEEDS a lack of structure, or controlling idea, for true expression to take place! If we are going to honour those explorations as essential parts of our growth and being, then time, resources, and space must be set aside in our teaching of children for them, just as they are for other aspects of learning we consider essential.

Blog 5: Teaching All The Students

Questions:

1) Is this situation typical in most schools?

2) How can art teachers accomodate different learning styles and other needs among their students?

3) Is it important for teachers to develop a range of instructional skills?

4) How can art teachers get the most from the visual nature of their subject?



1) Yes, this situation is typical in most schools. We live in a multicultural country where, hopefully, individual differences in culture, ability, and thinking are accepted. As teachers, we do our best to accomodate different learning styles and individual needs, and allow each child a chance for growth. The education system in Canada is integrated (for the most part), so all teachers must accomodate for a variety of learning styles and individual needs, whether they are cognitive, social, physical, or cultural.



2) Allowing multiple ways of approaching a problem to accomodate different learning styles and individual needs. Teachers can also differentiate instruction so different students can understand.



3) Yes, it is very important for teachers to develop a range of instructional skills so they could apply those in situations where students have different learning needs.



4) Human beings are, by nature, visual creatures (most of our brain's sensory receptors are related to sight), so art teachers should employ difference visual techniques to capture the interest of students. They should also help students to understand the power of visuals in the artwork they create. They should, however, also use a variety of teaching techniques that can reach visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, for not every student learns the same way.

Blog 3

After reading Sylvia Kind's ideas about children's art, I found myself considering a "larger picture", and my own past art experiences. Kind explains the drawbacks of a developmental view of teaching art, and yet, from my perspective as I was growing up, that seemed to be exactly what was being taught to me, especially in junior high and high school. I can remember art teachers who told the class "do this, and when you've figured it out, try this next". It seemed so sequential, and at the time I can remember once asking "I want to do things this way", and being told that my way was "weird", thus leading me away from experimentation! A frustrating experience, and one I think Kind would have some problems with. Her model of "representational performance" seems to encompass a larger view of the student as a learner. Each student brings their own "context" with them into the art classroom - their own individual strengths, experiences, and desires for growth, and an art teacher has to be able to adapt to that context as much as the student adapts to the context of the art class. It does not mean the art teacher no longer teaches skills, because they should. It just means that kids have to have the freedom to explore things, and then contextualize the exploration. The biggest issue I see with Kind's model is assessment. What aspects of her model are assessed? Can a child still show growth even if they do not complete an assignment, or it turns out "poorly" in the teacher's or the child's eyes? I found it interesting that Kind speaks to how children will often be primarily concerned with the artwork looking like they expect it to look like, not necessarily any other goal the teacher has in mind, and not necessarily what the teacher thinks it should look like! That seems to lend itself to some measure of self-assessment.

Blog 2

One preconception I have about the nature of childhood and children is that they are constantly growing; I don't mean physically but mentally. I believe that this preconception is true, because each child's learning is different, and in order to help that growth, families and teachers play a major role in guiding how the growth occurs. Another preconception I have is that children are eager to learn, like a sponge waiting to be "filled" with knowledge. If we provide opportunities and context, children will naturally learn because they WANT to. Obviously, both these conceptions of children affect my view of the role of both teacher and education - I see the teacher as a guide, planning experiences within an educational context to allow the students the chance to explore and learn. Education, then, is really a string of interconnected experiences, where the students construct meaning (hopefully) both within the educational context we provide them (our "learning objectives"), and within their own personal view of the world. I believe that the movie actually confirms my first conception, especially regarding the importance of family. James' need to feel important and loved by his family echoes the importance of family as a guide to what we learn. Without family guidance, James' imagination creates a context where he can receive the love and attention he needs. The movie also ties into the second preconception I have, in that James is taking what he learns of the world, even the bad parts, and constructing meaning that fits within his own "worldview".

Puzzle Documentation

The first day that we started the puzzle there was only Kenzie and I. I have worked on a lot of puzzles in my life because I have always enjoyed the end result and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with putting all the pieces together. Like Dr. Eiserman said, it is very addicting. There was always an urge to find the pieces and successfully put them together. I suggested that we should sort the colours and edges because it is easier to work from a smaller area of the puzzle, with similar characteristics, and build towards a larger picture. We sorted out half of the puzzle pieces into colours and edges.

On the second day working on the puzzle, there was only Sam and I; Makki join afterward, but by that time "puzzle time" was over. Not having the whole group there makes it harder to observe each other and work through the process. Maybe if we do the puzzle inthe last 15 minutes of the class, the whole group would be there and the process would be more effective. I worked on the puzzle after Sam taught us drawing and painting, and I managed to put most of the edges together, so next time, when we come back to work on the puzzle, there will be an outline for us to work from.

Blog 1: My best and worst experience in art...

Well, let me see...I have always enjoyed doing art ever since I was young, so my memory of art has always been positive rather than negative. One of the best memories of art I have from my childhood was when I was in Grade 5. I was in the art club and also participated as an "art leader" in our school. We were assigned a major project in conjunction with the Calgary Zoo to paint animals on wooden panels that would then be displayed at the zoo. I was really excited about the fact that my art work would be displayed in public for people to see. This experience made me realized how important it is for an artist to have their art work viewed by the public, and also how affirming it is to have others view your artwork as worthwhile. I think this is especially important for children because they need to see how people value their work, and a public forum creates a true sense of the community valuing a student's work.

Another great experience that I had was when my elementary school had a "class certificate" award each week for different qualities that the school was trying to instill in students. One week the award was for "the most creative imagination" and I won it!. That week we were to create an illustrated book based on fairy tales. My book was called "The Three Stinky Pizza Men". I was inspired by the book called "The Stinky Cheeseman" (loved it as a kid!) It took me a long time to draw three pizzas on each page but in the end I was proud of my drawings. We even got it laminated so it looked like a professional book! That was the first time I actually enjoyed writing a story because I was intergrating it with art. I was really happy when I won the award; it gave me the feeling of being recognized for my work, which is always important to children.

Most of my best memories of art occured in elementary school; that is probably why I am drawn to becoming an elementary art teacher. I want to be able to give students the chance to explore, to feel happy for accomplishing something that they might not have done without assistance, and to receive recognition for the great things they do!

As for my worst experience, it was during high school. We were to come up with ideas for our next art project based on a song my teacher had us listen to. I came up with an idea that I thought would be interesting and evocative to the viewers, but when I told her about it she would say something along the lines of "no...how about this". No matter what I said, her response was always "no...how about this". That made me frustrated because, regardless what I said about my ideas, she already had a certain vision of she wanted the project to look like. It basically took me and my creativity out of the project - instead, I was mechanically producing what she wanted to see. I can see how this could also be a problem for students of any age because they are often told how projects could be "better" if they do things THIS way instead of THEIR way. Teachers and parents need to be aware that student/artists need to have opportunities to explore and create using their own ideas, or they will not feel involved or "heard" in their own art!