Working With Others/Puzzles

To sum it up working with my classmates both in our peer teaching and in our final project has been an amazing experience. Working with others particularly in the final project with our balloons was a valuable experience as got to see a project from different viewpoints and learn from one another. If anyone hit a stumbling block we were able to look to the group for support and solutions. It was also really great to work with different members of the class who were not necessarily part of our peer teaching groups.

It was nice to incorporate our puzzles into our final work because I feel like the puzzles were the foundation for the adventure we had together. Our puzzling experience allowed us to communicate and work as a team while really coming together as a community. Puzzle time let us get beyond class discussion and really get to know our classmates which is valuable because it allowed us to trust each other enough to share our ideas freely and create such a great final project!

Thanks everyone for making my first University art class experience a great one!

Experiences

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

Art 302 has been a very positive experience for me. It has caused me to question how and why I learn and how best to help the children I work with learn and understand truly the concepts I teach them. Above this I have learned to be a better listener and take value in the lessons others teach me and accept that sometimes there are many different ways to reach the same goal and they are not better or worse than one another but just different.

Though our discussions I have learned to broaden my view of art beyond traditional definitions of drawing and painting and can now see art as a full multifaceted course. After reading through our text and exploring the concepts in class discussion I can now see the importance not only in integrating art into other subjects but engaging it as a subject of its own and acknowledging the importance it holds in developing well rounded children and adults.

Through this class I have learned that the role of teacher is not to simply ensure children know the right answers and can demonstrate the right skills but it is much more than that. The role of teachers in education is to provoke children to go beyond simple repetition and memorization and explore their learning and understanding. The teacher is not simply a passive guide they must interact with their students on a one on one and class basis so she can meet each child’s special needs and like the balloons in our class program teach the children to steer their skills and their lives so they can meet new heights of understanding and development.

Working Collaboratively

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

The experience of working collaboratively has added to my understanding of what you learn through art because it has helped me understand how art fits into a classroom and experience the roles of both student and teacher. Working collaboratively teaches you to respect those you work with and understand the different processes different minds and different artists must take when creating and they influence the final product especially in a project with more then one creator. Working collaboratively taught me most importantly that we must respect and strive to understand the differences in the classroom so we can help children reach their full creative potentials

Visual Arts as Solitary

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?

Our notions of visual art as a solitary activity come perhaps from our historical view of the artist. We see artists such as Monet, Picasso and Escher as solitary people, individuals creating individualistic work that is all their own. Therefore as with all new ideas it is hard to expand our view to include groups and collectives. While collective art may be limited in that it can be plagued by creative differences, restraints due to over influence of one another and lack of understanding it has many benefits as well. Benefits of collaborative work come in many ways from these limitations in that the many creative minds that might stifle one another will also feed each other. That they can share different perspectives and build on one another to create dynamic works that will represent many of the group and therefore reach a wider audience.

Child WOrkshop Reflection

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?

In my project I worked with Tristan aged five. We created the most wonderful earth sculptures and indulged in photography. This project succeeded on all levels largely due to the fact that both myself as the teacher and Tristan as the student had room for flexibility and were open to changing and growing our plans and concepts. I think the main lessons an educator I would take from this project is to adjust to fit the needs of my students and I think having that flexibility, that movement and adjustment that comes from being in tune and aware of your students learning is very much a concept of Dewey. I know now more about focusing my students attention and how to listen more carefully when they share with me because it is important to documenting and understanding their learning but I don’t believe I would change anything were I to do it again. The learning I gained even when my project didn’t go to plan were valuable to me as a teacher and even to Tristan as a student as in a classroom setting as with our time together we can never guarantee that the day will go exactly to plan.

Special Education

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 to these “special” cases reveal to us about the central issues for our practice as art educators?

When we teach we have the fortune to teach children from all walks of life with all sorts of unique skills and abilities. In addressing all of these differences we must recognize accept and accommodate all of these differences. In the past we may have separated our special needs students from those we classified as “normal” because we didn’t ant coping with the special to handicap the majority now however we have grown past this older notion.

Practice now is to integrate our students and all of their abilities and skills into one classroom. This aids special students in avoiding being ostracized by their peers and encourages tolerance and acceptance amongst all of the students. While benefiting the students socially and even in many ways developmentally having integrated classrooms also presents an interesting challenge. Teachers must be versatile and open minded in addressing the needs of all their learners. Whether that means going slower for children with delays or providing special programming for children who are gifted and have passed the knowledge of their peers. Classroom assistants can help monitor the special and gifted children to ensure all needs are met.

In Art we have a special opportunity for this integration. The creative side of art the freedom and ability for self expression and self discovery allows for every child to find their own spaces and own expressions based on skill and developmental levels. Art can cross the bridges between these differences because it can embrace differences and highlights the benefits in diversity.

Community Based Learning

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?

Community-based learning is very valuable for children. It allows children the opportunity to learn outside of a traditional setting which can afford them a certain amount of freedom and flexibility. This can mean more diverse experiences, often culturally based as well as more involved and hands on projects that they would not normally encounter in everyday life. It also allows an opportunity for new teachers with new perspectives that will broaden both student and teachers perspectives helping them grow as humans and artists.

Additionally the generally voluntary nature of involvement on the behalf of the participant lets the participant take much of the control and lead in their own learning. This can often mean learning in new avenues or directions than are covered in the standard curriculum. The smaller groups and less structure also allow for more individualized learning suiting the varied developmental levels found in modern classrooms.

When teaching in a community setting the educator can take more ownership for their lessons and programs. Developing it and tailoring it to the specific needs of their students once again taking education in new directions and into new subject areas accessing new resources even as far as new educators.