December 15, 2019
The title of my work is #BuildingWithBalance. I chose to create the work I did and give it that specific title because of multiple aspects, past and present experiences, prioritizing and balancing, growth, exploration, and my personal artistic identity. Science and Art - Throughout the semester, I have reflected on the relationship between art and science. Slowly, I realized that STEAM has been built into my teaching philosophy and lessons. It has given me a way to make art interesting to every type of student. Balance - Teaching at Beattie Elementary, designing lessons to peer-teach, and other classes made me learn to prioritize. This won't stop once I get a degree but will increase. There is a balance between, school, teaching, volunteering, and self-care. I chose to do a composition that was centered to represent this aspect. Growth - The teacher-student relationship was in my teaching philosophy at the beginning and end, but during the semester, I developed into the idea I had in my mind. From textbook to actual teaching, I grew into a teacher that focused on knowing students and caring for them. I will continue to grow past my limited mindset. Flowers represent growth. Play and Exploration - I had a mentality of playing and exploring when making my final piece of art because our semester of teaching was based on ideation and exploration. I learned that first and second grade engaged in class when they were able to express their own imagination, not the teachers. I mirrored the students process from this past semester's reflection. My Artistic Identity - I created art every week, but spent most of it exploring a new medium, but it is important for me to continue my art making as I further my career as an educator. I believe it is important to remember why I decided to choose this path. Flowers have been a subject that has deep meaning, and I am naturally drawn to. The connection among my past, current, and future learning and teaching is shown through my composition, building of layers and materials, and subject in the artwork. I have learned to apply what I have learned in class, to teaching experience in an actual classroom, like Beattie Elementary and BRAINY. Many aspects stayed the same, but my perspective changed and has gone above and beyond my expectations. The largest aspect that helped support my idea of integrating as much sensory stimulation in the classroom as possible. The firsthand experience of watching a reluctant student switch to a very motivated artist caused affirmation in that passion of mine. My work is composed of a balanced group of flowers, flourishing in a way that is border-less, yet good to represent my own growing and balancing. The mediums that I worked with was first, chalk pastel, then oil pastel to lay the initial color underneath. Then each color I added was to suggest depth and detail in my own artistic style. Then, I used ink and whiteout to showcase the exploration I did in the process of planning and brainstorming which supported my “building” aspect. I use the word building because I have learn many DIFFERENT ways and elements that have unexpectedly built my teaching style and philosophy. Yet it is still one piece of art, I am still me. The best part of this final project was reflecting and finding my own artistic drive again. I get so lost in learning and busyness, that I lose that natural drive. The most difficult part was funneling all my reflections into one concept or idea for the physical piece of art I made. This feeling of bittersweet finish of hard work has led me to the idea that there is more. There will always be more to learn, teach, see, and create.
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After discussing my ideas with peers, I have been exploring vellum which is a semitransparent material. So incorporate more layering aspects, I want to create a drawing with color underneath vellum, then white and ink on top. This was the process of testing out some vellum over pastel. The beginning of building with oil and chalk pastel on a large sheet of paper. I am focusing on a balanced composition as well. Building of color within different mediums.
Below is an exploration between multiple mediums, words, and concepts that represent my growth from this past semester. They show the process of taking concrete ideas and bringing them into my abstract artistic identity and practice. Then, I explored possible compositions to express and communicate my idea of balance. First, is a rectangular, symmetrical composition and the other is a circular, symmetrical composition.
WORKING PROCESS #1 – December 4, 2019
As I reflect on my semester and Art Journal reflections I have noticed specific themes like my own curiosity in Art and the senses, my role as a teacher and students role, life skills that are present in art making, adapting to new situations and challenges that lead to prioritization. These funnel into the hashtag I am connecting to my final piece, #BuildingWithBalance. At the beginning I changed my medium and material I was working with until I found a media that I had curiosity about. As an artist, I think that it is natural to get comfortable with a specific discipline, but then find something completely different. Overall, my teaching philosophy and views stayed the same, but I transferred my mindset from learning my role through a textbook and discussion, to stepping into and becoming that role in an actual classroom. To compose a visual to reflect all learning moments this semester, I want to focus on is building and balance. These two words have been a reoccurring theme throughout this semester and believe it will be very evident while I student teach. Because the idea of moving parts has been apart of my reflection, I am going to use multiple mediums, expressing the complex elements that go into student success in the classroom. I will be using watercolor, ink, pastel, and paint. These mediums will be used on an unusual surface or used paper. This will be a large multimedia piece reflecting on complexity. To affirm my theme of balance, I will be focusing on balance in composition because I am very gestural and fast, but very intentional as well. I had to learn to balance a lot of situations this semester and expect to run into this in the future. My teaching philosophy in August:
My teaching philosophy now:
As I reflected on my teaching philosophy from August, there are many things that, to my core, will stay constant throughout my teaching career. But there were things that I added to or changed which are bolded. I decided that design thinking is very similar to the STEAM aspect, so I deleted that to add sensory learning. The moments that had caused me to change or refine my teaching philosophy has been from teaching at Beattie Elementary, reflecting with Mrs. Noel, and discussion/reflection with my team. But first, I will talk about the elements that stayed. They are, spark curiosity, focus on student/teacher relationship, play, Joy Factor, learning together, providing a safe space to fail, choice based, emphasis on STEAM, and collaborative learning are my core reasons why I want to be an educator. Most of the elements have to do with who I am as a human and how students can be able to see and interact with art. Second, I added exploration, risk taking and learning/ideation in multiple ways (which is the sensory aspect). I realized how important it is to exercise exploration as a life skill; cultivating a desire to know more and to know why. The book, How to be an Explorer of the World, is a great tool that I will use in my classroom in the future. Also, I learned and started to understand that creating a safe place to fail is one thing, but taking risks is another. Taking risks can look like many things, but it is going beyond what is comfortable for the student, not just completing the teacher’s checklist. As I reflected in past Art Journals, I am now very passionate to add a sensory aspect into the classroom for students to become alternatively engaged. This specifically came from a lesson I taught at Beattie, which was introducing clay. In my revision, I utilize art as an artist, but also as someone who educates others and facilitates understanding about art. From many years, I considered myself a two-dimensional artist, focusing on drawing and painting. This is what I considered myself in August when I created my first version of my teaching philosophy. Now, I have fully emerged myself into fiber arts, which is involving more of a three-dimensional aspect and texture. Although I have changed many perspectives and ideas, my main interest and love is for color. That is something, I believe will stick with me forever. That can be found in my weavings, drawings, and paintings. My path as an art educator is still full of ups and downs, always changing, but I do know that its always important to keep an open mind. I have been finishing a weaving while starting another with new materials and colors. Although there are just weavings, I find them holding more meaning as learn and grow as an artist and art educator. Weaving has caused me to slow down, focus on simplicity, and put my mental health first. This alone has helped me become the person I am today, inside and outside of the classroom. My most recent teaching at Beattie was a lesson introducing a new media, clay. Something that I will share is the comparison between drawing and sculpting with clay.
Before teaching at Beattie, I came in having a major interest in sensory aspects of art and the way that specific students interact with different ways of playing, exploring, and learning. An element that I have always wanted to put into my classroom is a sensory corner which would include different materials to spark creativity through the senses. It is also connecting to therapy and how materials are provided to play with as they talk. Clay is a great medium to use for first and second graders because they were very engaged through play. A specific student in first grade was having a hard day when it came to respecting others and staying focused on the class lesson. He did not want to draw as he waited to play with clay, so he made others around him very distracted. The moment he got to the clay station, he was fully engaged with the material, not talking to anyone around him and exploring what forms and textures he could make. It is very interesting when you connect your personal experiences to the lesson and physically see students react the same way you do as an explorer of art. Before knowing how to accommodate for students, I thought that the role of the art teacher was to facilitate traditional art projects. From Interior Design to Art Education, I have learned that it is far more. If anything, this experience or moment helped refine and affirm my thoughts on the incorporation of senses and how important it can be to students who need alternative ways of learning. To utilize this passion, I can show myself and others around me that clay, beads, color, texture, etc. help me not only create personal art, but is a way I destress, center myself, and calm down. In this world, especially for students these days, stress and anxiety is a common theme. In the art classroom, students can learn ow to cope and take care of themselves in the best way. I believe it will be important to provide many kinds of materials, colors, and textures for students to explore. Weaving is something that centers me, forces me to make time and space, and feeds my textural/sensory needs. As I keep working on it, I find it very easy to connect to each of my art journals because I write my thoughts, I connect it through my personal passions, needs, and desires. I read this great quote in an Art Education Assessment book, “If likened to a weaving, then, knowledge of world and self is the warp through which fibers of teaching and assessing, the weft, are tightly woven. The result is learning—a work of art with rich colors, textures, and patterns unique to each student.” I believe this sums my experiences up perfectly. My reflections from this past week was working on our intention behind teaching a specific lesson and how students connect personal aspects to imagination.
Last week, Patrick worked with my group and I to help revise our most recent lesson plan. By doing this, we were able to reread, reflect, and clarify what we wanted students to take from it and apply outside of the classroom. It helped move our ideas into a simple form which allowed us to go into last Friday’s lesson, confident. This moment helped connect what I have learned as an artist and an educator. In the last few years, I have reflected on my whole life, the steps I took to become the artist I am today, and how I didn’t even realize it sometimes. By observing those moments, I changed my intentions of teaching with personal connection and knowing what I have used in the rest of my life. Second, I observed that students connect many real life, personal memories or places to their made-up stories and imagination. It was very interesting to watch students sit in a moment of thinking to match their visual memories to the drawing on paper. I keep learning where first and second grade students are at developmentally and what truly engages them. The students love to focus on the present or the next exciting event that is happening, so we focused our lesson around one prompt, Halloween candy. Every student had their own mystery and story. Personally, I create art that I am engaged with, curious about, and have a passion for. If I don’t, I dread making it or I simply do not. This goes for the students at Beattie, so designing a lesson or project that they are excited about is very important. For me, this memory reminded me to always create art because I love to and I am connected with it. As a future educator, art is something that can easily be viewed in a non-applicable way, but us, teachers, can design lessons that students who don’t consider themselves artists, can apply to life. Skills like problem solving, inquiring, experimentation, creativity, and risk taking are only a few that I want students to walk away with. Yes, some may follow the path as an artist later, but not all students will, and I want all students to be impacted. As I keep working on my weaving, composition is something that I am considering as I go. I decided to bring lines and textures in that represent hills. There are highs and lows to my experiences as I keep teaching, but if I didn’t have those moments, there would be no learning and growing. The first aspect of my personal teaching and learning is my role as a co teacher. Although there are many moving parts when we teach in the art classroom, it is important that my peers and I work together to teach in the most effective way. After hearing feedback from observers, our efforts to work hard individually and together has shown through. Our goal is to team up, using our advantage with three teachers, and help as many students learn and grow. Last Friday, I had a role where my peers were speaking while I was facilitating engagement and listening. It worked well because students were reminded what it looked like to be respectful and engaged while learning about the new topic, storyboards.
The second aspect of my teaching is learning as I go. I believe and have noticed that students feel more comfortable when we get on their level and work through challenges together. There are some activities or management that does not go the way we plan, but that is how we are going to learn. Learning with the students is something that I have been noticing more and more. The third aspect was a reflection on this past lesson plan. Specifically, the objectives, what I want students to get from this. At first, we had an idea of stories. We thought that it would engage students going along with the idea of book covers from the weeks before. Although we had a plan, we didn’t explain what we wanted the students to learn fully. Making fixes before teaching caused us to have more of a plan and clear goals. As you can see, my experiences from Beattie Elementary has had a lot of moving parts through learning moments, reflections, and observations. But as a student in the Art Education program, I am still learning, and it is okay to keep working on all of the moving parts. This is what weaving is like. Different types of materials, patterns, and knots. As it builds, it will become one, but for now, I will continue working, exploring, and learning. Friday, October 11th, there were a few interesting circumstances that caused me to learn and grow from it. Personally, my only individual teaching experience was AmeriCorps, but there was a total of ten children that I had to manage. Me and my group member, Erin, were the only facilitators for the lesson on Friday and there was a substitute for Mrs. Noel. Fortunately, we have already taught the lesson and made fixes to create smoother transitions. I wanted to share this experience because it put me in a position where structure and class management was crucial because there were fewer teachers in the room to work together. We were in charge of bringing students into the classroom, directing students, explaining the learning target and activity, and document. I haven’t really gotten a taste of what it could possibly be like as the single teacher in the room. As crazy it was to quickly adapt to what was going on, it was such a positive learning experience. I got to put my textbook learning to the test regarding class management.
Personally, this experience brought up many areas that I am and would like to work on. In EDUC 350, a piece of feedback I got from the teacher I was with, was that I need to develop my teacher voice more. As a person, I am not one to be loud, brave, and outgoing. I don’t view it as a bad thing, but I do know that as a future teacher and for the sake of my future students, I need to start getting comfortable using a louder, more firm voice because students need to be guided and have structure from the teacher. Especially for first and second graders, they need clarity and directions. At Beattie, I think that it has been the moments where I have reflected and engaged with my areas that I need and desire to grow in. To go off of my last couple of journal entries, I am continuing with my exploration of weaving. As an artist, I am quite stubborn with using new mediums, techniques, and materials because of the unfamiliarity of it. I usually avoid them at all cost in order to stay with what I see as comfortable. If you asked me about Fibers before I started, I would have said that it is not “my” form of art and that it is too “tedious”. After forcing myself to take a step into uncharted territory, I began to appreciate the process and product of weaving. Now, I view it as something I could do forever. This week, I began working on a new tapestry that involves curved lines. I am excited to see where this weaving goes and what elements are highlighted. In this entry, I will highlight why art is so important to our society as a whole and how an individual, like me, can communicate perspectives, ideas, and stories through art. When the general public thinks of the word art, they may think of Michelangelo or Van Gogh, but really, there is more to art and the expression that comes with. Art is important for its beauty, connection to humanity, the way it communicates beyond words, contains life skills that can be held all throughout life, and ways to shift perspectives of the public. Recently, the idea of Art Activism has been on my mind and I’ve constantly learned more about how to utilize it in my future classroom. I cannot express enough how important it is to start this early in a child’s life. Personally, I think that it is important to build a foundation on equality and love. Art can be a way to emphasize that and to share it beyond the classroom walls.
My personal story has shaped, molded, and grew me into the person I am today. My work that I create now is influenced heavily on what I have experienced and what I have seen. Art has been a large part of my past and a way of recording, remembering, and highlighting my past. Art has also been a way of communicating my story to others who don’t know me as well. Naturally, I want to share stories about my experiences through art because I want to share stories that I fully know to be true. It opens a space for me to share more, sometimes, its even easier than speaking in the first place. I believe that art can be a way of communicating for my future students as well. As I keep working on my tapestry, I am slowly introducing new materials and techniques. This week, I am focusing on wool because of the aspect of texture and how viewers can touch and feel. Human interaction with art is very important in order to build a personal relationship with it and interpret it alone. Reflecting on the impact art has on our society connects to this idea. The more humans can see it and interact with it, the more they will become impacted with what was trying to be conveyed. |
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