Monday, May 2, 2011
How can I integrate Art into my classroom?
Children need aspects of all learning domains in order for the greatest amount of learning to take place. The three domains can easily be integrated into Art lessons for any subject. No child left behind puts a lot of pressure on teachers to only concentrate on the cognitive domain in their classroom because that is the facts and things they will need to be able to show on the end of year tests. This seems like a backwards way to look at it to me though because using art in the classroom allows opportunities for students to demonstrate higher-level skills and thinking. The psychomotor domain is in my mind the best one to try and incorporate into the classroom and is easily done in an art lesson. This domain stimulates learning and allows students to nonverbally respond to artwork. Many times students don’t know how to express themselves verbally and so giving them the option of expressing nonverbally can be helpful to them and you when trying to assess their learning. Children need to be able to move during the day or they will go crazy. Why not make that movement part of the assignments or class work so that it isn’t distracting to your lessons. For example when teaching Art and discussing different pictures or artists we can let the students show us either in their facial expressions or in body movements how the artwork makes them feel. If when they look at it they feel angry then they would make an angry face or stomp around in an angry manner and things like that. I think that when they are doing more than just reading or listening they remember better and are likely to make further connections. The affective domain is incredibly important to student’s growth and development. Kids need the opportunity to express themselves, feel validated and know that they are individuals. Children will learn to either think positively or negatively about themselves and if we can get them doing art projects that they are proud of then they will learn to be positive about themselves. Self-worth is an incredibly important characteristic that young children need to learn.
The visual cultural approach I think was summed up by the quote on page 82 of our text, “the unity of thought, personal feeling, and expressive action that results from an aesthetic experience.” When we’re trying to teach anything, a visual aid of some sort will always be beneficial. If the students can see it and then discuss it’s characteristics while the teacher is explaining then the information will stick deeper and better. This visual cultural approach helps students figure out who they are, what makes them who they are and then how that is different from the kids in their class. Students are able to compare and contrast their culture with other cultures around the world. This does need to be done carefully though because it is very easy to stereotype a culture when in actuality the majority doesn’t follow that trend at all. Teachers need to find truly authentic art, music, literature etc, to bring in and share with the class so that they don’t grow up following those stereotypes.
I liked a lot of the examples of art-integrated lessons in the text. I thought that the use of clay was great advice because it can be used in so many different classrooms and situations. You can have the kids make anything out of clay and either let it dry out or put it away for use later. Clay is something that a teacher could easily use in any setting to help students grasp the concept visually and kinesthetically because they get to mold it and manipulate it in their hands. Culture specific art is something that can be used in social studies classes because you can copy their cultures specific technique and let the children create something of their own. Another thing with social studies and history even is when using time-lines allow the students to illustrate them so that they get to connect something with the date beside just a name or place. Really liked the idea of creating murals for any subject but especially for social studies or history because it gives you a chance to see what the kids think is important and what they are going to really remember. They can do it in groups, which strengthen their social skills and abilities to negotiate and work collaboratively. Math was harder for me to find integrations for probably just because I have never been that good at math. The book mentioned that when studying tessellations or geometry there is a lot of opportunity for art integration. The students can draw their own tessellations or they can create shapes and put them together, take apart, create different shapes etc. An idea that I had which wasn’t from the book is something I think would work well in a social studies class. Have the students get into pairs and one student poses in an act or position that would be used by the people or time period being studied. The other student draws or sketches that pose and then they switch. The students can then hang them on the wall and have other students try to guess what they were doing and how it relates. The teacher would provide artifacts or costumes that fit the topic also so that they were as authentic as possible.
I think that integrating art into the core classes is absolutely essential because using a variety of activities and assessments is really the only way that students learn and perform to their optimal level. Not all students learn the same or develop at the same rates and so why should we force them to do the same assignments and projects all year round, year after year. You can learn so much form a student through their artwork if you give them limited structure. They will surprise you with what they create. Art projects let them express themselves, what they’ve truly learned, experiences they’ve had, their true feelings and opinions and it gives them the chance to do all those things without the fear of being made fun of by peers or singled out for being different. Inviting art into our classrooms open the door for so many more enriching activities and discussions. Personally I always had more fun when we did an art project in class ay to me it makes sense to try and incorporate them as often as possible. I feel like it is my responsibility as a teacher to make sure that my students are enjoying school and if the only way to do that is by incorporating art then that’s what I will do.
3 self portraits with the original
The original at the end here with my grid portrait at the beginning, what I think i look like and then what i drew from looking at a picture.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
This is my tropical fish named Thin mint. He is very skinny, hence the name thin mint. He is from the Caribbean and I found him one day while I was scuba diving on a coral reef. I have given you his two side views because he is just so beautiful. He likes to eat fish food that I buy at incredible pets because he is incredible. Sometimes I wonder what he liked to eat when he lived in the big blue but alas there is no way for me to ask him. He enjoys swimming in fast circles around the fish tank, playing tag with the other fish and swimming through the bubbles that come out of the play volcano inside his tank. Sometimes I move his tank around the house so that he gets to experience different scenery. He especially likes the view from the bedroom window because it overlooks a small pond. I think the water reminds him of his previous home. His blue and purple color help him to blend into the ocean when he doesn't want to be seen. I love my thin mint and hope that he lives a very long life. He is the best fish I have ever had.
This is my flamingo that I created out of wire and pipe-cleaner. I used a bit of clay so that it would stand up on it's one leg. I gave myself the handicap of being blind while I made this flamingo. I had a blindfold on and it took me forever. Honestly it took like two hours because I wanted there to still be some detail but I had to feel it all since I wouldn't see anything. By the end I was able to use the pliers easier because I had gotten used to what it was like and how to manipulate the wire the way that I wanted. This was an interesting experience and it really gave me some insight into what I will need to do to help those student sin my class who might have special needs. Time is a huge thing. You can't rush any child when they're doing an art project because they really care a lot about their work and they want it to be their best. If we rush them it gives the impression that art is not important and that we will accept mediocre or half hearted attempts. I know a flamingo isn't a typical circus animal but I thought it would be really fun to make and I only had pink wire and pink pipe cleaners at my house. I'm pretty sure you can find a flamingo at a circus in Florida or any place that they native too. If I had a circus I would definitely have Flamingos participating.
Monday, March 28, 2011
ABC Scratchboard
The ABC's scratched into black tempera paint over crayon. ABC's around the outside as kind of a border and then lower-case letters swirled in the middle.
Starry Night
Depiction of the view from my bedroom window at night. I actually live in a basement apartment without a window here in Logan so I drew the view from my room back home. There is a tree right next to the window and then one further away. There is a grassy hill with a trampoline at the bottom of it which i was trying to show at the bottom of the page. I can always see the moon really well and full moons are my favorite so I chose to draw the night of a full moon.
Monday, March 21, 2011
color wheel
A color Wheel using the primary colors to make the secondary and tertiary colors. I wanted them to look like crayons. The warm colors are outlined in red and the cool are outlined in blue. The legend in the bottom right corner tells you that the primary are the ones connected with a solid black line, secondary and connected by a dotted black line and the tertiary are connected by the circle. The word Color is in secondary colors and Wheel is in the primary colors.
watercolor textures
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Carl Bloch Art Exhibit
A few weeks ago I was able to go down to the BYU Museum of Art and go through the Carl Bloch exhibit. It was absolutely phenomenal. The Museum has tons of original Carl Bloch paintings that are have been lent to them from different castles and churches in Denmark and Sweden. Many of the paintings had never been moved since first put their by Carl Bloch. BYU was also able to buy the painting "The Pool of Bethesda" and have it on permanent display. My grandparents are actually the ones who bought it and then donated it to BYU because it was my grandmothers favorite. For that reason and many others it has become one of my favorite paintings as well. The faces in the piece and all of his works, are incredibly detailed and emotional. You can feel the emotion that the artist wanted portrayed by each person in the paintings. This particular painting is so deep and has so much to take in. The large paintings of his are overwhelmingly beautiful and full. They portray so much that you could sit and look at them for hours on end. I liked how the exhibit offers ipads for rent that have extra information about each painting if you should want more than the plaque gives alongside the paintings. Bloch's art is used countless limes in Christian churches and so I was familiar with most, if not all the paintings they had on display. It made a more significant impact on me though because I was seeing the original artwork. There's just something special about seeing the paintings that Carl Bloch hand-painted himself, like I knew him somehow through his art. I would encourage anyone who has the chance to go down and see this exhibit, to do so. It's free unless you want an ipad, which is three dollars I believe. These paintings will never be released again from their original resting place so this is your only chance to see them!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Practicum-Name Bugs:)
Art Practicum Reflection
March 14, 2011
I think a few things went really well with this lesson. The kids seemed to really enjoy the project and really got into making it their own unique picture. They all thought the art I showed them before was started was cool and they all were able to understand the concept of symmetry.
If I were to teach this again I think I would change the way I gave directions for the name bugs. I need to figure out how to teach to the quick kids as well as the ones who may be slower in following directions. I had the classroom teacher kind of go around with me and help the kids who were having trouble writing their names etc. I think I will maybe have some of the kids go around and help their classmate in the future since I won’t have another teacher in my classroom.
I didn’t anticipate the amount of confusion that the kids had in where they were supposed write their names. I just had to go around and tell students to erase and start over or get a new paper, or flip it over because they had written it in the wrong place. I will have to write up step-by-step instructions next time maybe with pictures to accompany the steps because kids like to go ahead when they think they know what is going on.
The students loved this project! I wasn’t surprised though because I loved it too when I was in third grade. They thought it was really cool to design and color in their own bugs or monsters. Some of them got really creative in their backgrounds and some even made their bugs saying things, which they came up with all on their own.
I would probably teach them another visual concept like that of symmetry. For example, patterns. We could make another bug or monster out of patterns and they could have a family of bugs or something like that.
This project did make me excited to teach art because the kids were creative and I could tell that they were all having such a good time. It’s fun to see their brains working and see what they can come up with on their own. I think that I would enjoy just teaching art in my classroom and not being a full time art teacher just because I feel like it’s easier to relate art to their lives when you know their lives better.
We actually hung of all the students work on the white board with magnets. The students were all able to go and hang their picture up when they thought they were done with it. The teacher will eventually put them in their portfolios that they keep all year. Parent teacher conferences were actually later that week and so the parents got to se their work hanging up while they waited or after they were done with their conference.
A student who is normally very shy and unwilling to share their work with others was very proud of hers and thought it was awesome. She was willing to show the class and explain what all the parts were, which is a huge step for her. It was great to see this leap of faith she took with my lesson. If I can make it so that kids learn to have confidence in themselves and their abilities I will feel like I have accomplished something as a teacher.
Coil Pot
My coil pot. For some reason I couldn't get a very good picture of it but I kept the coils on the outside and smoothed the inside. I also painted this one blue and then black because I thought that it would make it look cooler. I also thought it was cool that the height wasn't the same on all sides, I think it makes it look more authentic.
pinch pot
This is my pinch pot. I took close up pictures of the three designs that I used. I painted it green first and then brown because I thought it would make it a cooler and more earthy color.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Aboriginal Art-Journey
My journey. This is my journey from my bed to my kitchen because I live so close to campus that any other journey is super lame. The moon and cloud depict my bed where i sleep, then my footprints past my roommates, the sun and fire because one has red hair and the other has blonde hair. The washer is the blue lake on the left and then the mountains are the stairs. The rain is the shower that I pass on the way to the kitchen where i am standing with a happy belly because I get to eat. I think the stipple was more fun then the cross-stitch and I think it looks cooler.
Georgia O'Keefe flower
Flower after the style of Georgia O'Keefe using a viewfinder. I did mine of daisies. They were actually both had pink petals but I wanted more color so I did one pink and one blue-green.
BAMBOO BRUSH PAINTING AND CHINESE NAME STAMP
BAMBOO PAINT BRUSH WITH CHINESE NAME STAMP- I DID JACK INSTEAD OF JACQUELINE BECAUSE IT WAS WAY TOO LONG TO GET A GOOD LOOKING ONE. I WAS ABLE TO GET THE COOLEST STAMP USING JACK.
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