Journal Entry #6

Journal 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 curriculum, resources (teachers with art background, supplies, community resources), and space provided for art as a separate subject?

It’s very important for children to be subjected to different artists so that they can gain some artistic preference. If children have some knowledge of famous artists and art history, they can appreciate art education in a more full way. The article talks about children having favorite artists by Grades 5-8, and this is an opportunity I didn’t have but wish I did.

One topic that was discussed is the fact that art gives us skills in every area of our lives. The author writes about how children with an art program will discuss the nature of art as well as the business of buying and selling art, which will give them quite a well-rounded picture. Art encompasses everything. Children work their motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination, and learn kinesthetically. Of course they also work their emotional learning. But art includes language skills (to communicate what the art is, means, etc) and it uses math and science skills (measuring the picture, seeing what sizes will work with what, how much paint to mix). Art can be used to encompass every single skill any person could ever need.

Essentially, this is why it is so vital for art education to be mandatory in the curriculum. Artistic learning gives children and adolescents skills in every area of their life. If adequate instruction, space, and materials are given, art classes during school can become an extremely helpful developmental tool for children. Art instructors are able to incorporate many different aspects of learning into their projects and the children develop intellectually. Art education also improves confidence in children and can be very therapeutic.

Journal Entry #11

Journal 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?

There are a lot of benefits to integrating arts throughout the elementary school curriculum. In this chapter, it mentions that drawing, like any other skill, is something that should be practiced daily. As we’ve discussed in class and through other readings, there are different types of intelligences. A child who is not smart at math may be able to grasp concepts more easily if the math is explained to him or her in the form of an art activity.

Artistic intelligence has been overlooked in academic circles for a very long time. Even now, doctors and lawyers are considered more solid careers than painters or actors. However, holistic learning is changing this viewpoint in the classroom. It’s a fantastic idea to have children artistically engaged in social studies, science, language arts, math…The more opportunity children have to explore the way they learn, the better they will understand their learning processes as adults.

It is easy as an instructor to become consumed with one aspect of the assignment, whether it be the artistic or the educational. It’s hard to get the right mix. If it’s difficult for instructors, it’s even more difficult for the kids.

It’s hard to give equal attention to both aspects of the assignment. I feel a bit like the academic aspect is the boring, lecture-y part, and the art project is the “fun part”. This would be even harder to overcome in a classroom setting, because you would be essentially lecturing or giving notes on the academic aspect and then letting the kids have fun painting, sculpting, or whatever. As an instructor, you would have to be extremely enthusiastic and find a fun way to present the academic aspect of the project.

Journal Entry #10

Journal 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?

I have a four-year-old cousin who gave me a perfect example yesterday of the relationship between children, pop culture, and art. My cousin wanted to do a craft. Of course, I was extremely excited about this. I had a few ideas, which I suggested. But instead of going for these, he went on the computer and found some online crafts based on television shows. We ended up printing off some pages to color and then fold into a fan.

It seems to me that the relationship between pop culture and art is a lot stronger than it was when we were growing up. This has the potential to be a good thing. It is great that a four-year-old knows how to search out crafts on the computer. There were some pretty neat crafts on the website. He also was listening to music from the same website and this is a positive influence on his artistic development.

However, there are many educational experiences children miss when their artistic experience is computer-based. It is extremely important to provide children with a range of media. Popular culture is thrown at children these days through a variety of media so much wider than what we had as children. They have television, internet, computer games, books, magazines, as well as a variety of different video gaming systems. This has the potential to help children learn, but I find that it is shortening their attention span and encouraging them to be more concerned with television characters than any other kind of media.

With the children we will teach in our classrooms, I think it is of utmost importance to provide them with a range of media. It would be a very interesting lesson to connect a character or characters from their favorite television show to a traditional media figure. For example, if drawing portraits, you could have them draw one contemporary figure and one traditional figure (Hannah Montana and the Mona Lisa…). That way, the kids can feel engaged in the assignment but you still have the opportunity to teach them something new.

Journal Entry #9

Journal 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 p. 154-55. Describe how you might address each of these guidelines with the child you will be working with.

I found this chapter very interesting because it talks about safety with elementary students in a classroom setting. It’s much easier to make a safe environment with only two kids (like in our workshop) than twenty kids (like in a classroom).

I’ve found it’s a really good thing to set limits at the beginning and to be very strict with warnings throughout the activity. If you are lenient with the kids before and during the activity, accidents can happen, but if the guidelines and safety rules are clear, children are more likely to be careful. If the rules and instructions are clear at the beginning, kids are also less prone to accidents and confusion

It’s important to have rules, for example kids putting their hands up and not talking while others (especially you, the instructor) are talking. I found the section on letting the kids help you set the rules very interesting. This is something that would absolutely work with only two kids, but probably wouldn’t work with twenty. I’ve found that if you as an instructor are clear with your rules, the kids will be clear with the rules. If you let the kids help you determine the rules, especially twenty kids, the rules are more likely to change or be a bit transient. The last thing I want to do when I only have an hour to teach an art project is spend half an hour arguing with kids over whether or not they can run with scissors. If the kids have questions, it’s better to explain and talk about the rules than let them have input into what they are. For example, it would be great to have each kid tell you a rule they think should be incorporated, but you as an instructor should have veto power and should have a list of predetermined rules you will be following, whether or not the kids agree.

Dealing with any misbehavior right away is also really important. If a child is repetitively rude or disrespectful and they are not dealt with, not only will they not take you seriously, but also other members of the class will think this behavior is acceptable. Personally, I think addressing the individual with both discipline and praise is important. Whether the child is misbehaving to get attention or not, he or she is likely to respond better to individual attention. The same goes for giving a child praise. If a child sees that you are praising their individual artwork, they will feel confident and happy. If you praise the general classroom, as Kalin suggests, children will feel better but like their individual artwork is not as important as their good behavior as a class.

Journal Entry #8

Journal 8: Reflect on the studio work you have done this semester. Which experiences did you find the most successful, in terms of Dewey's criteria of a "good" experience, and why? Which experiences did you find least successful, again according to Dewey's criteria, and why? What have you learned about art and learning? What would you still like to learn? How does the art educator respond to the individual needs of the learner while ensuring the continuity of experience?

I found Kristy’s workshop extremely successful, in terms of Dewey’s criteria. She made sure that she was aware of what the students were learning and what our attitudes were. In particular, I didn’t know very much about painting, but she used her own experience to help me learn. She took into account my experience with art, as Dewey writes about taking the child’s life experience into account. It was a good lesson because although we all had fun painting, the lesson also had enough structure that we got our work done and learned something.

Vince’s lesson was moderately successful with regards to Dewey’s criteria. I didn’t feel that he used his insight to help organize us, rather that he let us figure things out on our own (how to use the wire and plastercine). This was an interesting teaching tactic, but it doesn’t comply with Dewey’s principles. He gave fantastic feedback, which shows that he knew what our attitudes and strengths were.

My lesson was moderately successful in terms of these criteria. I think that it applied to the criteria of education, leading the students in the right direction. However, I didn’t have a very good idea of what instruction the students needed. Since the students in this case were adults, they were very independent in their work. If I had been doing this project with children, I would have had to be more aware of the instructions that were needed. I thought it would be fun for the lesson to involve experimentation with the shadows and camera angles instead of the instructor telling everyone what to do. But Dewey has a good point that children need structure in their lesson, and I’m not sure I gave as much structure as I could have.

Studio Projects

Journal Entries for the Studio Projects

Kristen: Painting and Drawing

For this project, we did a meditation and then painted trees. I wasn’t too sure about the whole meditation part. The idea is great, but she told us that when she practiced the meditation with her sisters, they laughed and did not take it seriously. I feel that a classroom of children would have a similar reaction. Maybe if she rephrased the whole meditation it would work. I loved the painting of the trees. We were instructed very well. I felt that, as a non-art student, I was able to learn a lot about paint through this lesson.

Vince: Sculpture

I love the idea of mythical creatures. The crawling around the room idea was cool to get an idea of movement, but I’m not sure this would really work in a classroom with twenty kids, instead of four adults. Kids would goof around and with all the wandering, I would be worried about safety.

The wire part of the sculpture was frustrating. I didn’t feel that the tools or the wire were very safe for kids 10-12, because I kept poking myself. Safety glasses would have to be used if this project were done with children. I wasn’t as clear with this project as I was with painting and drawing. I haven’t done much sculpture, not being an art student. It was interesting to learn about division of weight and how much plastercine to use, but I had a lot of trouble getting my sculpture to stand up.

Me (Keeley): Digital Artwork

This studio project was quite an experience. I think, in hindsight (which is always 20/20) I would have done pretty much everything differently. Firstly, instead of providing books for them to read, I made hand-outs. However, I still should have set out the books I used, so that everyone could take a look. Books are more tangible than hand-outs.

Finger puppets were fun, for a warm up, but I think in general not the best idea. I really wanted to take pictures of things that would be 3D. I think, if I were to do this again, it would be interesting to make marionette puppets. I love the idea of the children learning about their heritage through making puppets of their families. However, marionettes would present more of a challenge and would still allow the 3D photography aspect I was concerned about.

I got everyone to take their photographs individually, but this didn’t work out very well. If I were to do this again, I would have them go in partners. I love Allison’s idea of the whole white photo booth-type thing. I thought it would be fun to let everyone experiment with light and shadows, but doing this individually was extremely difficult. It was also hard working on such a small scale. The results would be much more artistic using marionettes and a booth.

If I were to do the PowerPoint part of the lesson again, I would give more direction with regards to layout and artistry. I felt that the artistic experience in this project could have been a lot stronger than it was.

Journal Entry #7

Journal 7: Why do we assess learning in art? How can learning to self-assess in art transfer to other subject areas? Life endeavors?

We assess learning in art because students need to have some idea of their areas of strength and the areas that need improvement in their learning. Students, especially young students, have to see what they are good at and what they need to work at. Assessing art in any form (visual art, drama, dance, creative writing…) is a very difficult task for any teacher because it is inevitably a subjective practice. We all have our own opinions and preferences for everything in life and whether it is conscious or subconscious, these affect the way we view art.

I enjoyed the part of the article that talked about criterion referencing. It’s hard not to compare Child A’s painting to Child B’s painting, especially when they are painting the same picture. With all that we learned about holistic approaches, though, it is important to remember that all children are at different levels with their learning. All children are strong at certain things and weak at other things. It’s crucial to remember to have a holistic approach towards the assessment of children’s artwork.

This assessment theory can apply to much more than just artistic assessment. It’s important to remember in math, science, language arts, physical education, etc. that all children develop and learn at different paces. If we compare Child A’s ability to play soccer to Child B’s, then we are not taking into account the individuality of each student. It’s also good as a teacher to remember that whether it is intentional or not, we bring our own opinions and preferences to the table when we mark any type of activity (not just art). It is important to attempt objectivity as a teacher, but no one is ever completely objective.

These principles are important to remember in everyday life as well. Everyone, children and adults, learn at different rates and we all have weaknesses and strengths. Whether we like it or not, we give a subjective opinion when we see the rates of learning, the weaknesses, and the strengths of the people around us. I think that once we are aware of these things, we can give greater attention to our own behavior. We can be more patient with the slow learners or those who are good at different things. This is a great practice to apply not only to our classrooms but the people in our lives.