Summative Reflection

Viewing and responding to art:  Learning about the Visual Teaching System (VTS) opened my eyes to art viewing.  This method was introduced to us this semester and it taught me how much you can learn from your students by enabling them to make statements and judgments about what is happening in a piece without hearing the history behind it.  I learned how rich of a discussion you can have with any age of student through VTS.  I have also come to the realization of  how important it is to me to show art work during class, to reinforce the lessons we learn, and to expose my students to the work of historical and modern artists.  Viewing artwork from history and current times enables your students to learn from another artist and draw inspiration from their work.

Developing art curriculum:  I have always believed that it is critical to have meaning in your artwork.  As an artist myself I didn’t realize until high school that I could express myself and my opinions through my work. I have learned through this semester and my field work that teaching your students that they have a voice through art can be done with all age groups.  Through the tiger artist lesson plan that my team put together I learned how to teach a complex idea to students from ages 6-13 at the same time.  They all can create meaningful art if they are given the knowledge and tools to do so.  I have also learned how to create lesson plans and units that are rich in content and technical skills.  

Teaching art:  I have learned the basics of teaching these past few semesters.  This semester was the first that I was able to do field work in an art class room specifically.  It really opened my eyes to the realities of teaching in a public school and helped deepen my own values of art education.  I learned that viewing art is just as critical as creating it.  Viewing art work in the class room is a huge part of my goal in my own classroom.  I want my students to learn about the history of art and see how the masters have learned to use color, line, juxtaposition, etc. in their own work.  Through my field work I have had a reality check about the materials and time that may or may not be available.  As an art teacher I will need to be creative and flexible.  I did some work with special needs students in the art classroom as well and that was monumental for me. Through that I learned that getting to know each student as an individual is critical in learning how you can best serve them as a teacher.  You cannot make generalizations and assumptions if you want your students to push past any obstacles and put in the effort.  Having patience and compassion for your students is very important in developing a bond with them.  A bond is important because it enables your students to feel safe with you and be willing to open up.  If a student is afraid you will reject their idea just because it is a little different you will have much less experimentation in your classroom.  Experimentation and play can lead to the best ideas and pieces, just being safe wont get you far in the art world. I have also learned through the unit plan that I created, and the tiger artists lesson plan we created as a group, how to make a unit to study in school.  I learned how to write a lesson plan and all the components you need to include in order to have rich discussion and art creation.

Portfolio:  Having a portfolio is a great way to keep all of you current and relevant work in one place for future employers to look at.  The process of reflection and creation are great skills to be able to show.  They demonstrate that you will continue to look back at what you have done and how to improve.  The Unit plan presentations were all so amazing.  I got so many great ideas from them and they all inspired me.  Presenting our unit plans and the tiger artist collaboration showed me the importance of team work in teaching.  It is critical to have input from another source to bounce ideas off of or to tell you if something doesn’t make sense. 

Unit Plan: COLOR!

Classroom Management

In my classroom on Wednesday there was a boy in the class who had some special emotional needs.  He has trouble processing emotion and has a language barrier- cannot understand complicated or long directions.  He needs precise and short answers and directions or he gets very overwhelmed, which often leads to anger.  On this particular day she warned me that he sometimes had trouble keeping his hands to himself and could have angry outbursts. 

He is not allowed to use pencil sharpeners in any of the classrooms because he doesn’t know when to stop.  He will stand there and sharpen a pencil, break of the tip, and sharpen it again for the entire period.  He was warned once by the teacher and he sat back down.  The next time it was more of a forceful warning and the boy got very angry.  Unable to process this he stomped across the room, yelled, and pounded his chest in frustration.  All of the kids got quiet and stared but for such a short time I know they must be used to his explosions.  Mrs. Garcia asked him to take a break in the hall and called the office.  I heard them talking to the boy and reinforcing his plan of action after class when he was calmed down.  They placed a stress ball in the desk called the “safe seat” for him to use when he gets overwhelmed and discussed taking breaks in the hall to get away from the other students. 

I thought it was handled well, but I also don’t have a ton of experience dealing with this kind of behavior.  In the end though I think he felt taken care of and hopefully in the future he will deal with his anger better.  Mrs. Garcia told me it has improved since he started seeing a counselor. 

I like the idea of the safe seat and I would definitely utilize it in my own classroom management.  On the first day of class I would go over all of my expectations and the progression of warnings and consequences.  I would create a poster and keep it on the wall with it all listed simply and clearly. 

                         I will…..

1.       Raise my hand when I have a question

2.      Speak kind words

3.      Keep my body to myself

4.      Help others

5.      Be safe

6.      Not distract my classmates

                                                Steps:

            1^st time- warning.  A green post-it note will be placed quietly infront of you.  If you do not understand what you were doing raise your hand and we can talk about it.

            2^nd time- Move to the safe seat.  You may be asked to fill out a think sheet.  Asking what you did wrong and how you can fix it next time.

            3^rd time-  Sent to the office.

 

                                Note:

The safe seat is not only a punishment.  It is called the safe seat because you can go there if you are feeling bothered, distracted, or just need to be alone.  Be responsible and move yourself there if you need too.  Warnings are not strictly given out in the above order.  If you are being very distracting or dangerous to other students I reserve the right to skip a warning. 

 

Assessment

After doing the reading I know that I will know what my students have learned through assessments of their work. There are many types of assessments: portfolios, essays, tests, and projects. Successful learning looks like a student who is willing to work hard and take constructive feedback from group work and one on one discussion of ideas and materials with me. Assessments should address many different types of knowledge. Beattie lists six areas of knowledge that art assessments should address (pg 7):

1. Content

2. Skills and processes

3. Why certain procedures and processes are used

4. Knowledge about your own strengths and weaknesses.

5. Motor skills-manipulating tools

6. attitudes- emotional expression

Through reading about Summative Assessments I learned about creating a test blue print in a matrix format. I know most of you have seen these before and I feel that they are a very important tool in the classroom. Having a matrix grading rubric would enable me to assess all of my students in the same way based on a set system of criteria. The rubric would give me a solid grading rubric that I could go over with my students at the start of a project so that they would know what our goals are and how I will assess them, so that there are no secrets about my grading system.

In my unit plan I will utilize summative assessment so that I can see how effective my teaching was and if changes need to be made. Creating a portfolio would be a good way to assess my students as well. It would enable my students and I to look back on all of their work and the progress that they have made. I also like the idea of writing essays about artists and qualities of their work, to encourage critical thinking and visual literacy.  

Big Idea Book

 Last two pages:

Artist statement:
For my big idea I chose story. When I first approached this big idea I was thinking more in unspecific terms. To me all art tells a story. I created an image of a spiral staircase from two different view points. I used acrylic paint and photo transfer. The story I had in mind was life's ups and downs . Any viewer would bring their own experiences in and interpret this in their own way.
I emulated Kiki smith on my next page by utilizing a well known happy kids tale and portraying it with dark colors hinting at a different mood to the story. Kiki creates images based off fairy tales and puts in her own twist. She also approaches this big idea in a more open way in other works. She says that she will approach a piece with her own story in mind but Kees it open to interpretation from the viewer.
Kristin was my guest artist and really focused in on the setting and characters of a story. I brought it all back together with a India ink and water color image of a city street. This was meant to be a stage for a story.

Art Poster

This is the poster I created to support art in schools.  I have several key terms that outline my teaching philosophy and why I believe art is important.  I also surrounded my whole poster in images from well known important artists (I only had room for a small number) to show how these artists are a part of what, how, and why we do what we do in art. 

 

Why Teach Art?

 

The question “Why teach art?” seems a simple one at first.  I want to teach art because I love it!  The true reasons behind why I love art and why it is important to teach are much more complex.  In High School when it was finally revealed to me that art can be used to express your emotions and tell your stories, my love for it grew tenfold.  I now had a personal connection to this creative process.  Creating art and having critiques about art has taught me how to give (and take) constructive criticism and learn how to think outside the box.  I learned how to work hard when I became an artist.  You have to put in extra work and research to get the product that you want, and it didn’t even feel like work.  Learning how to work hard on something that I love helped me to learn how to work hard on the things I don’t like so much.  My new critical eye that didn’t just take things at face value learned how to unpack readings and question facts and opinions. 

The arts can increase parent involvement in the school and with their child’s school work.  In the Principal Magazine the first article is called “Connect With the Arts.”  This article discusses how different schools used art to bring parents into the school and to spread diversity through their students.  At Sunnyside Elementary many parents were comfortable in the classroom because of their own bad experiences with school.  The principal instigated a monthly family night where the students, parents, and teachers all came together to eat a meal, create an art project, and listen to a guest speaker.  One of the projects was to make a fleece blanket to snuggle with while doing a nightly reading session together.   Speakers would speak on many important subjects, such as using art to express your emotions, and how it can help with math and other subjects.  These ideas really demonstrate how art can help bring students and parents together and get parents involved with their kid’s teachers. 

I also believe that having visual arts and literacy education is critical because it can help connect different subject matter in a cohesive manner.  For example the Principal magazine gave the example of using a project to create symmetric butterflies to reinforce what the kids have been learning in geometry about symmetry, and/or what the students have learned in biology about the makeup of an insect.  Art can be critical for connecting the dots with many students and providing different ways of learning. 

Learning how to have visual literacy is also critical for students to understand the world around them.  Our society is so immersed in media and advertising that is important for them to learn to decode these messages and the lies they are being told.  Learning how to evaluate an image based on its composition, color choice, scale, juxtaposition, and meaning are just a few of the tools that our kids need.  Art leads kids to have a more critical and analytical eye, they are better able to strip down and image and understand what is really there by having Visual literacy. 

 

Source:  "Connect With the Arts." Principal Sept.-Oct. 2012: 2-4.