Final Summative Reflection

For my final reflection I kept with a technology that I know very well, PowerPoint.
As I was brainstorming and deciding on how to demonstrate this growth, I kept noticing that a lot of the growth was happening in my art room and the way the kids were thinking. And a good friend pointed out that the quality of student work was a great way to show that growth in both of us. So I showed growth in myself AND how the quality of their work has gotten better. This year has been small changes, but I am excited to have some time now to create a more meaningful curriculum for next year. All these changes take time. It will be interesting to look back in a year and see how much my artists and I have grown!

Here is the link to my PowerPoint through Google Drive. If it's not working for you please let me know and I can email you the PP :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwv9QJeT0WL8enFlbUhDN0VoMjA/edit?usp=sharing

Here's hoping I figured out how to correctly share it!

Post-Modern Portrait

Better late than never. I've been thinking and working on this for the past two weeks, just haven't finished the second part so I didn't want to post. However picture two will not be finished by the deadline so here it is, as is.

 

My portrait is 2 parts: the first is a photograph that include the final element of my creative process. the light bulb is created in Bristol paper, with sharpie, crayon and watercolor. Roughly 12 x 18. The second is my self portrait, 12 x 18 with sharpie.

 

This is how I create. A lot of my creating is due to an assignment or due to creating a lesson plan So my methods are based on how I have had to create for the last few years. I go to nature, others, quiet time for myself, I play piano, go for a drive, sit down and sketch, nose around on the internet, watch twister (again and again, watched it twice while working today). When I create I like to take some risks, one of my favorite ways of creating is watercolor because you never know how it will turn out. This may be an assigned creation but as always it felt good to create. I spent a lot of the creation time in my head, working/reworking the idea until I came to my light bulb. I like to create from a very literal stand point as demonstrated above and I will always make the kind of art that I identify most with... child like and fun :) 

I decided to add this image as part of my portrait. Yes it is my "hero self" example for my 5th grade students, but in a big way it is me. I have not colored it in because I'm still debating on colored pencil or watercolor. This is how I hope my reflective practices will help me to be a better art teacher. "Artsy-Fartsy brings the joy of art to children around the world!"  With continually reflecting, I can work to become Artsy-Fartsy!

Week 12- Video Lesson 2

Pre-thinking for this lesson: This lesson will be with different students. I need to make sure that I keep this class engaged, but also under control. This class may be 5^th grade instead of 2^nd, but this particular class tends to have that same amount of energy and can get a bit out of control quickly. One of my goals was to be more open minded. This lesson continuing on our definition of hero is a great way to promote myself to be more open minded with my students thoughts but it is also a great way for me to promote them to be more open minded. Another one of my goals was to truly question what I am teaching and why? So this lesson I have been developing as I go- I have been allowing my students thoughts/needs/great ideas to guide this project to where they need it to be. So we shall see how I handle their ideas and how it propels our project J

Overview- 5^th grade hero lesson extended.  For this lesson I am asking them to brainstorm the idea of a hero. I have taught this lesson for three days and this is the 4^th class. Each set of 2-3 students has their own paper, but then we end up creating one giant brainstorm web on the board that the whole class contributes to. The basic idea is that I want the kids to brainstorm and challenge their idea of a hero. We talk about hero vs. superhero, qualities of each, and I push them to record all questions that arise as they brain storm. The last three classes have left the art room excited and bubbling with ideas, they generated tons of relevant questions and have make my cup run over with happiness for where this lesson has the potential to go! They will eventually be creating a hero version of themselves.

http://popplet.com/app/#/1815391

Visit the web I have been working on for my kids- I have them a few things to start about 5 total bubbles, and they came up with the rest. This is so rich with thoughts and questions- They make me proud! This is from 4 different class brain storms.

Before watching myself- Well I felt as though the lesson didn’t go as well as the previous three classes. For one thing there was a big drama filled girl fight in the beginning (ah, 5^th grade girls and stress) and then I used an analogy that made some of them roll their eyes, some listen, and some laugh- something along the lines of jumping into an art ocean! I don’t know where it came from, but I’m sure it will be interesting to watch.

While watching:

My presentation of our assignment went well, however I can tell this is day 4 of teaching it, I am leaving some parts out and I eventually get to it later in my teaching.

Wow the girl drama thing took me away from the whole class for several minutes.

 “Imagine an ocean- so some of you are playing in the shallow end of the ocean right now-The art ocean is much safer than the ocean ocean-In the art ocean of ideas it is totally cool to get swept away by a current, because nothing terrible happens to you, in fact it just makes your brain grow more wrinkles. But the thing that I want you to think about is, if you are still standing on the shoreline just putting your toe into this idea it is not going to work, I need you to jump headlong into the ocean of this idea in a serious way. Some people have already posed some great questions”  I go on to list all of the questions and discuss what I have been talking to some tables about.

Later I am trying to get them to be polite with one another and I say “You cannot throw spears and star fish at your neighbor when you don’t agree with them. So I need you to be good children and play in the ocean together. It is okay to respectfully disagree, be okay with having different opinions.”  This is when I decide to let them change groups and I say “Find a group that can help you dive into your ocean of ideas”

So I’m not sure what generated this need for an art ocean analogy but it kind of worked.

Overall I am pretty happy with how this lesson is going- this class ran into a few problems, mainly dealing with personality clashes, but overall they still generated great ideas and questions pertaining to heroes. Being able to actually watch the things you say and do in detail is a great tool. Many times we work so quickly that I can’t remember ½ of what we said or did by the next day. I have been pleasantly surprised by how involved in the ideas my students have been. I think I was able to create a better engaged project for this group than the previously videoed group and it made a difference. I am glad to see that these deeper and more engaged projects are working out well and that my students are more than capable of thinking deeply J  I also feel like I did a good job of trying to stay more open minded with my students- there were many “out there” kinds of thoughts and some I personally didn’t agree with, but because I allowed them to keep challenging the ideas without me putting in my 2 cents, it was amazing how heated it got. Sometimes I forget to step back and say nothing, because far too often in the elementary, they feel that if they teacher gives their opinion, than it’s the final say, rather than respectfully challenging my idea.