12-12-09

Overall I think I learned most in this course during field experiences. Most of the content I took away from the course was of the way to actually conduct myself in the classroom (as opposed to the valuable, but personally untested head-knowledge that I received in education and methods courses up until that point), and small improvements made to my lesson plan and teaching during the lesson study process.

I was surprised that in the school my group taught at, which has a reputation very being a very rough and dangerous place, the discipline problems came from students not participating and being too quiet, rather than being too talkative or fighting. It was good to have that experience, because if not, I might have went into teaching believing the hype about how "bad" certain "kinds" of students are.

I would like to continue to explore art as a way to personally connect with students, and have them connect with parts of themselves that are not usually expressed in the classroom.

12-6-09

In the interest of brevity, I would describe the lesson that my partner and I taught as one rooted in the idea of fear, in which students were encouraged to express intense personal emotion, or attempt to draw emotional reactions from their viewers through a mixed-media piece. We equipped students for this task by showing video clips and images that used aesthetic devices such as lighting, size, and color to express or evoke fear.

Something that was in the original plan that was not carried out well (due to me forgetting, to be honest) was a classroom discussion of composition--how to creatively use the elements and principles of art to one's advantages in filling the paper. Some students drew extremely small figures or did not think enough about the size and shape of the objects involved in their piece, causing the finished product to possibly be less powerful than its potential as an artwork. Even this issue goes back to a larger one, which was a disorganized demonstration on my part.

Another related factor is the simple condition that it was not our classroom; We had only a limited time to prepare resources before students arrived, and had limited relationships with the students, which served as a disadvantage in the ability to motivate the two or three students who were not interested in the project.

11-22-09

It's really difficult to talk about building community in the classroom without sounding naive about the prevalence of certain socially disruptive factors, and being idealistic about how a community can be effectively formed in spite of these challenges.

All a teacher can do initially is to make efforts from the beginning of the school year to create an environment where everyone is accepted and valued, by encouraging diverse views, appearances, and art-making, and enforcing a classroom policy in which one must leave negative things such as gang-related speech and actions outside of the room, perhaps even in order to enter the room.

A big part of when this community can be encouraged is in collaboration during work time and during sharing and critiques. If the teacher opens up to the students and encourages them to do the same, a number of students may follow, and members of the class may get to know each other as individuals, breaking barriers that exist outside of the art room.

In order for this to be truly effective, all students in the room must be invited to participate, and this community must be made attractive to each individual student by the teacher and others who have come on board. How to make community attractive depends completely on the students' interests.

11-15-09

I can't say that I've encountered any classroom management issues that can be considered "severe", but from my (limited) experience in the classroom it seems that the most common classroom management problem is a lack of motivation, manifest in potentially opposite ways--students' refusal to work, or having a chaotic classroom where not much is actually being done artistically (and of course both of these can take place at once).

In motivation being the biggest issue, I think it's important to acknowledge that the root of the problem can come from numerous factors, including the student not knowing why art is relevant to their own life, lack of examples of educated individuals in the students' community, a lack of value for education in the home, a lack of rest or down time outside of school, and other issues.

I think the best strategy to employ with most classroom management problems is for the teacher to make (him/her)self present and accessible in the classroom, apply student interest and energy toward artwork, and have low-pressure conversations with students before or after class.

11-8-09

I always wanted to be an artist so I was never much of a student in non-art classes, and I have lacked the motivation even to complete assignments that were of some interest to me, simply because of my schedule (I'd love to put in all the hours it takes to maximize my potential output in painting class, but I also have other classes and a job...and I need to sleep sometimes) or the timing of the assignment in general.

However, usually when I'm not motivated to do schoolwork, it's because the assignment does not apply to anything I want to do with my own life, or the guidelines of the assignment restrict me from handling it in the way I would like to.

I don't think there's any way to answer a question of how I would motivate uninspired students until it happens. I definitely won't win every battle against the general lack of motivation in some students or its many causes, but what I can do is be sensitive to the fact that my original presentation of a lesson may not be the best way to reach some students, and be willing to make adaptations based on student needs and interests. Knowing what those needs and interests are will (hopefully) come from meaningful relationships with the students, if only in conversations about hobbies during work time. Fortunately, art is flexible enough to apply to any student's interests or ambitions.

While teaching an art lesson based on the idea of personal fears, I tried to motivate one student at my site by speaking with him and asking him about his interests, but he would only give very short answers that weren't helpful to me or himself. I allowed the assignment to bend, and told him that if he wasn't afraid of anything, then he could create a piece that would draw fear out of others--but up until the last few minutes of the last day of the lesson, he would not work beyond the small lines he marked his paper with seemingly just to get rid of me. I can only hope that if I were his regular teacher, rather than an occasional student teacher of a four-day assignment, I would have gained a better understanding of where his lack of motivation comes from and how to find and direct whatever interests he does have.

10-25-09

In whatever school district I end up becoming a part of, I think one of the best ways to be an advocate for the arts is to make the events of the art classroom and students' artwork (preferably with their permission) as visible as possible to the school and community in order to get people acquainted with the importance of an art curriculum and the meaningful learning that takes place in an art education. For these things to be valued by the community, the art teacher that uses public accountability as a form of validation must be conscientious in creating, implementing, and maintaining an art education experience that is relevant to the students and other areas of their academic education.

I think that there are risks involved with being an advocate of art in education, simply because in many school systems at this time the pro-art position is contrary to that of the school system as a business, and that of parents and community members who don't understand its value. This could cause employment issues if pursued openly.

The way to balance these things is not certain, but by making the art curriculum effective for other school subjects and beneficial to all students, we can maximize art education itself and increase the community's desire for their children to have it at the same time.

10-18-09

I think the fundamental benefit of collaborative artmaking is the transmission of ideas between artists, in order for each artist to grow by being drawn out of their boundaries, and to gauge the effectiveness of their visual communication methods.  Multiple artists giving input to one piece can also teach the individuals more about themselves, and maybe they would like to expand on some ideas that where pointed out to them in their own work.  Service-learning projects could fit into the curriculum as the beginnings of different projects, using research to guide my methods.

I've never really made art with others in a hands-on sense, but a major part of collaborative artmaking that I have participated in is group critiques.  I think that the technique used in the book to prevent "groupthink" during critique is something that can potentially make that part of artistic dialogue exponentially stronger.  Honest feedback during and after the creation of a piece of art is a vital part of the flow of ideas between artists, and can be key in fostering a collaborative atmosphere.

Groupthink, in my opinion, has been very present in the critiques I've experienced, as even when I have no idea how I would comment on someone's piece, I am able to predict what others would say because of the climate of that class, and give that as my input for the sake of participation.  This can be detrimental to the discussion, the piece in question, and the thought process of the artist who created/is creating it.

10-11-09

I had a field experience in my Secondary 1 class that took place at a middle school in the area, and that was possibly my first time having an actual encounter with a student who had a disability in the context of being a teacher.

She was definitely a character, and my interactions with her gave me a little time to conquer my fear of awkwardness (which will be a frivolous thing to worry about when a child's education is dependent upon me and others in my position). I'm not even sure what her "label" was, to be honest...I just know that she spoke in very incomplete sentences, used "her" instead of "she" when talking about other people as subjects, went back and forth from being very clingy to telling me to "go away", and she got really frustrated during projects.

I think I met her when she tried to make me cut images out of a magazine for her collage, and while deciding whether to do it I asked the teacher, who told me that she was capable of cutting the magazines herself. After that and spending more time with her myself, I was able to encourage her to stay on task and not be overtaken by frustration during projects--in addition to having a better understanding of the way she spoke.

She helped me see that she, as a student with some sort of "disability", just needed someone to take interest in what she was doing, and not give in to her or give up on her.

Here is a piece by one of my heroes, Chuck Close, who at one point was forced to paint with his teeth because of a loss in the use of his hands.

9-27-09

If a student came out to me, I would probably be more of a listener than anything else, since I haven't been in that student's position and don't know what it's like to be gay (although I think we have all experienced not wanting to "come out" about other things in our lives for quite the same reasons). I would try to let that student know that they can talk to me, and, as the RWR reading suggests, make my classroom a safe zone for students of all kinds--not just those that our society sympathizes with at that moment. If I were the first that the student came out to, I would handle their trust with care by not telling others, but I would encourage them to do so, so that the student could go on making decisions about how to conduct their life.

I believe the best way to make a classroom a safe zone is to earn the students' respect and trust early, and popularize the concept of acceptance with those students. Students will always want to fit into their environments, so my job is to take initiative in creating an environment in which it's cool for those students to be honest and kind to each other rather than putting each other down, and always having to hide how they feel for fear that they'll be attacked.

Two GLBT artists of my interest that I plan to use in my curriculum include the likes of Jasper Johns and Betty Parsons.

9-20-09

It was very difficult for me to think of a time that I was discriminated against, simply because I would like to assume that if someone mistreats me or mishandles a situation they are in with me in some way, they are doing it because of a personal misunderstanding rather than an over-generalization of a social group that I am perceived to be a member of.  However, I do know that at times our experiences or lack of experience with certain examples of these groups leads us to make uninformed decisions that can be described in terms of discrimination.

As a member of a social group that is not well represented at my college, it has been both a blessing and a curse to stand out in the classroom.  Professors learn my name quickly, but some of my own actions are exaggerated in the minds of my instructors because of how visible I am.  I had a studio professor once during a three-hour class that allowed us 15-minute breaks--once each class period, at any time the individual student chose.  It was a night class, so I would use that break to go across the street and get a snack, usually returning in about 10 to 12 minutes.  Unfortunately, I would notice signs of the instructor's frustration with me, and other students would tell me that she frequently used whatever moment I chose for my break to give demonstrations and additional instruction, saying things like "Where's Chuck?  He's been gone for a half-hour".  Whether or not it was the best way to handle the situation, I just stopped taking breaks and avoided luxuries that other students enjoyed so I could stay out of trouble.

I would also have to say that I always make a conscious effort not to discriminate against others, but I have made assumptions about the character or personality of my peers because of what is seen on the surface.  This was the case with a fellow student that I attended a weekly field experience with, since in first seeing her I doubted that we could ever share the types of conversations or ideas we did on the way to and from the site.

That situation has taught me to approach people, specifically students, more as individuals and to use certain labels they were given or even their own backgrounds only as clues that lead to who they are, rather than things that sentence them to a fixed potential.

9-13-09

The key components that I plan to include in drawing lessons definitely involve both technical skill and expressive drawing, as discussed in From Ordinary to Extraordinary. I find it necessary to teach drawing skills such as perspective, shading, and creating the illusion of texture, and design elements and principles through lessons that still allow the student's to find creative solutions toward an original and very personal piece each time. As was stated in FOE, these skills increase visual awareness. If learning to draw is learning to see as is often said, sharper visual awareness will provide the tools young artists need to create their best artwork, even if they decide to steer completely clear of representational work.

I will encourage personalized balance between a student's achievement of naturalistic renderings and capacity for expressiveness in artwork by using an unbiased grading system that includes artists' statements and individual sketchbook entries. This will extend to my own teaching, as I will try to keep a balance of representational and non-representational artwork in my demonstrations and overall classroom environment. In my own experience, there are students who do favor naturalism by choice and others who prefer abstraction. I will discuss creative goals with each student in order to help them reach their own creative ambitions, rather than trying to "free" their work, or guide them into more accessible styles.

The drawing that I've picked is a portrait of Erykah Badu by N. Lyon.

I chose this image because I think that even the most naturalistic work can be personal and expressive, and that this form of work will never be obsolete artistically, even if it is unpopular. I've found that when I used to draw portraits of people (specifically when I drew a portrait of the depicted musician above some time ago), I would become much more aware of that person's physical qualities that I addressed and begin to see them much differently, almost from the perspective of one that creates the human aesthetic.

9-6-09

My identity has changed in the transition from high school student to college student mostly in response to an increased level of independence and gradually movement toward autonomy. When I was in high school, everything I did was dictated by parents and school administration. I did not necessarily have different ambitions or motivations, nor did I view myself much differently, as far as I remember. The significant changes lie in the fact that because I am so far away from my parents' house, they are forced to trust that I take care of my schoolwork and other things necessary to get the most out of their investment on my own terms.

However, within the field that I have chosen to pursue a career in, I have learned enough about art teaching to move from a place of foreclosure (from not being able to do anything but art) to possibility. Art has always been something I loved and wanted more than anything to participate in completely, but after taking the methods courses I have taken, art teaching has become less of a decision that I made out of necessity and more of my personal choice on how I will impact society.

I can't say exactly how my artwork has changed from high school to college, because I am heading into the next phase of that artistic development now. I do think that what I am planning creatively is more universal because of the experiences I have had at this university with different kinds of people than I am used to, but at the same time more personal and honest than I have had the courage to be before.

8-30-09

My own practices as an artist will help me in the classroom by enabling me to maintain an attitude of exploration while teaching. Continuing to create while teaching will increase my awareness on the job, give me creative approaches to relating with students and make me more receptive to my students' art as I grow. There is also the need for me to stay connected with the art world, learn about and react to what contemporary artists are doing, and

Skills that artists develop that also work toward success as a teacher include increased visual, symbolic, and maybe even social awareness, as I've talked about before. There is also receptiveness to expression, and being able to see the students not only as a collective body, but also as individuals with their own potentials to aspire to at the same time.

I will incorporate my art into my teaching by bringing ideas into the classroom that I am currently struggling with, so that be wrestling with tough concepts or certain roadblocks early, my students would have the opportunity to advance further than me in the span of their careers. There are also ideas I'm just thinking about now, such as allowing students to preview/critique some of my work, but I still need to work out details before I decide if physically bringing my artwork into the classroom at times is a good idea.

I will continue to make art while I teach primarily by utilizing my summers to be productive in my own artwork. When teaching higher grades levels, it's possible that I may find ways to work alongside the students, after putting thought into strategies for working in the same studio space with them, without my artwork, techniques, and ideas having too much influence on theirs. After doing it for a while with each group and learning about their characteristics, there may be a balance found where the teacher and students can inspire each other as the teacher facilitates creative practices.

Even though there seems to be a decreased interest in it within the current community of upcoming artists and art teachers, I am a very firm believer in the importance of technical skill in art, simply because of the freedom it provides. Part of creating art that is meaningful to oneself is having command over medium, and not being limited with what you can say through your work by not having the technical vocabulary. It will be important as I design all of my lessons to include new techniques/practice with known skills, the ability to create without being bound to set elements and principals, larger ideas that effect the community represented in the classroom, and ideas that will manifest themselves as personal expression in each artists' own work. Often, the students will need to make generic techniques their own, cutting edge solutions to whatever they encounter in their artwork.

Introductions

I graduated from a 6th through 12th grade visual and performing arts high school, where I was, of course, an art major. My school was located in an "inner-city" area, and yet was quite a unique place to its own. Although my city had four other high schools which suffered from varying degrees of apathy, disrespect for authority, violence, and other such issues, my school only have 500 students, and was a fairly close-knit environment.
Though the numbers influenced the higher achievements and decreased discipline problems there, I also believe that the focus on the arts--rather visual, dance, vocal, band, orchestral, or drama--deeply effected the way students approached their education. The same things seemed to occur, on a smaller scale, within the school itself. This leads me to believe that cultivating the students' talents will give them a sense of individuality, direction, and motivation in their education.

As an art major, I was a nerd even within the "uncool" school to attend. It was one of the smallest majors at the school, and some of the students went out of their way to be accepted by other majors' cliques. I was definitely not one of the "cool kids", but still well known and liked as an individual. The reputation I acquired helped me to focus on my own goals.
Academically, to be honest, I hated all the subjects except art (and parts of English). I was focused, but limited in what I could do outside of my area of expertise.

My biggest fear related to working with high school students is the students' apathy, or an unwillingness to take art seriously, but I am most excited about inspiring those students who, perhaps, have no area of interest. I'm not sure exactly what I will learned (or I would have studied it already...), but I intend to keep my eyes open for all things.