Read & React 4

Eisner-Describing Learning in the Visual Arts
Eisner even agrees with Dewey and Kathy- the importance of building a community where we can learn from each other. "It is also a function of what they learn from others as they become members of a community" (Eisner 2002). We develop that community feel in our current classes together. It is fortunate for me that even though I only see my students once a week, they are together in their home rooms as well and have that sense of community. After my students get to know me, we all try to take those risks together and I absolutely encourage the idea bouncing and discuss/learning. In the art room though I think it is very different than their classrooms. I have found that everyone seems to fit in, and many of those who may not fit in else where seem to feel right at home in our art room. "One of the potential virtues of situated learning is that it increases the probability that students will be able to apply what they have learned." (Eisner 2002) I think that they art room provides a more real world feel due to the types of discussions that students are willing to have, especially when you relate contemporary art to the contemporary issues- more of a risk taking conversation.
Eisner also made another great point that seems to be resonating, he spoke to the need for an experience that allows students to not only repeatedly use the media, but to experiment with it, find it's limitations and let the media guide the students choices. To just create with it. He likened this idea to the process of learning to play the piano, which I can relate to, it takes years and a lot of practice. I feel like this would be a great way to explain to parents why there child is coming home with experimental play art from different stations they are trying out and learning media play, rather than a bunch of finished products that doesn't truly allow them to investigate that media and it's capabilities.


Freedman-Interpreting Visual Culture
I was Pinging like crazy again with this chapter, resorting to a lot of thoughts from our Visual cultures class. Another ping from this statement, "The contribution of student interpretation to classroom discussion can be increasingly meaningful as they change their thinking through processes of critical reflection."(Freedman 2003) was to VTS. It is amazing to watch their wheels turn as they change their minds because of other ideas, or spending time away and thinking, only to come back so excited to tell me what else is happening.
"but a person does not have to visit an art museum to see forms of visual culture."(Freedman 2003)This point brings home the concepts that we as well as our other authors have been saying. Today's students are totally immersed in visual culture, heck it's probably even in their dreams :) Well it is for me!  But the reality is that our kids spend amazing amount of time taking in visual information and it's time to arm them with the skills to decode. I think about how often my students would (hopefully) change their perspective about a product or piece of information if they really understood what they were looking at.
PING- "The Impact of contemporary imagery has generated a wide range of sociopolitical and economic issues, including its influence on student identity, notions of citizenship, beliefs about democracy, and so on."(Freedman 2003) I'm Pinging from a comment that Michelle made in studio- but this statement and Michelle's point about needing to show our students contemporary art so that they can see how the artists are thinking and working with current topics! Great point, sometimes with the elementary art I am guilty of sticking to my old reliable favorites (oldies) and forgetting these is a whole new world of excited art that my students MUST be exposed too.
"If we want students to think critically about visual culture, they need to actively engage in reflecting on their own art and their responses to postmodern culture".(Freedman 2003) this keeps bringing me back to the idea of how important it is to spend time with your art and discuss it, reflect upon it, change it etc. I am looking for suggestions for quick and easy ways that my elementary kids can reflect on their work?
The following quote speaks for itself:
"The expanding realm of visual culture is not just worthy of study because it's out there, it is worthy of study because  it's in here; through art making and viewing, we shape our thinking about the world and about ourselves."(Freedman 2003)
And needs to be a quote on my wall for my kids, especially the final part of this thought. It makes me want to pose a very simple question to all I meet, Would you be who you are today without art?

Read & React Day 3

I am very excited to be talking about Richard Serra. I have never really know what to think about his art, but last summer while in the Toronto airport I stumbled onto his piece below Tilted Spheres. It was not until seeing his work and the sheer  magnitude of his work that I really started to appreciate it. Walking around the tilted spheres, it felt as though Serra had discovered a way to defy gravity... pretty sweet!

 

 

 



The Transmediation article speaks to a class many of us have take with Nick Kramer! I loved that class and how it opened my eyes to a totally different world and the way that now I analyze what I see a lot more and in a very different way. I really like how the article pointed out different exercises for older students, but some of the questions they were discussing are really great to be asking yourself about your curriculum every year.

"How do students make sense of what they learn?"

"What contradictions exist in the knowledge they acquire, invent, or interpret from the texts they read in classrooms?" (Ladislaus M. Semali  Judith Fueyo)

These questions are interesting from the stand point that we always have to put ourselves in our students shoes and try to understand what they are thinking or how they are thinking. In my art room I only get to see my kids once a week, so the down time can be great for them to process and really put some thought into their work, but it can also be too big of a time space. I also think it is important when considering contradictions, that we consider the things that they learn at home can be vastly different from what we are teaching them, and sometimes they are opposing views.
There was one other quote from the article that really spoke to me:
"Among the various aims we consider important in education, two are especially so. We would like our children to be well informed-that is, to understand ideas that are important, useful, beautiful, and powerful. And we also want them to have the appetite and ability to think analytically and critically, to be able to use what they know to enhance their own lives and to contribute to a democracy." (Ladislaus M. Semali  Judith Fueyo)
I just kept thinking can you imagine if when schools designed their curriculum's, they were thinking about these ideas rather than what is the state going to test our students on. The approach of a more rounded education is something that  needs to be emphasized in our schools, a lot of children are not being taught what they used to.

Freedman- These chapters were so much about the need for art history, but also the need for all of the views to be taught, including political issues, both sides of the story, artists of all kinds. It is also interesting that Freedman is connecting to the idea of symbols and visual culture. When I design my curriculum, I started with the thought of what looks cute and fits the standards, to now I design my curriculum to yes fit the standards, but to also actively engage my students interests so that they art they are making is meaningful to them. "Learning takes place based on cognitive connections, including those that relate to emotion, and more connections mean greater learning. Learning is dependent on student engagement, which is an indicator of emotional investment." (Freedman 2003)
It is not uncommon to get into a project and if most are not interested, we scrap it and find something better. Being able to teach students about those visual symbols has been very interesting considering how much information comes at them each day. "Visual culture includes symbolic forms that make us want to look." (Freedman 2003) Our students are decoding images and information frequently and giving those skills of understanding has opened a whole new door for artistic development for my students and myself.
 

Read & React Day 2

Eisner made several great points in chapters 3 & 4. I felt like he was going over a list of basic but essential ideas and attitudes that they teacher needs to embrace (also a great reminder). I once again found myself ping off things we had talked about in Studio class or things that would be beneficial to me in the studio class. I really enjoyed Eisner's evaluation of the materials we use, "This doing represents a transformation of a material into a medium. Materials become media when they mediate... They mediate the aims and choices the individual makes." (Eisner 2002)  When I make art other than for my students I don't typically let the supplies lead my art making decisions, but after a lot of thought in this matter, I am interested to see what changes I can make in my curriculum by simply changing the medium, and how this decision will affect the outcome of our projects.
For a good portion of the reading I kept thinking how I would enjoy being a fly on the wall of other's art rooms... see how they speak with students etc. "What a teacher says to assist a student can either advance or undermine they student's ability to solve the problem at hand."(Eisner 2002) I am constantly interacting with my students, but I am concerned that sometimes conversations we have may lead them in the wrong direction. I know that this knowledge comes with time, I feel that I'm much better than I was when I started three years ago, but i also remember how I felt when the conversation didn't go well with my teachers in school. It would be interesting to see maybe a documentary simply on the discussion of art with younger students, outside of VTS.
Eisner also offered an interesting thought process on what kinds of environments we create for students, we need to create an environment where they can create, risk take and learn from their failures. His example of using Mars as a creative place for students to think about  being, allows students to create without a lot of preconceived image of "exactly" what something should look like- they can be more creative without that fear of failure. The last thing that really stuck with me was this quote: "We need to treat teaching as a from of personal research." (Eisner 2002). This part of the chapter was interesting about how teachers find ways to make their job professionally easier and then get stuck in a rut, well this describes 1/2 of my department well, many are not risk takers, they are waiting for retirement-ers. It is has be so important to my journey as an artist and especially my journey as a teacher to stay fresh on the new things happening in the art world. I like this idea of treating my career as my education- forever learning. This idea may need to be given and remind so many teachers out there about the gifts of teaching.

More from the reading to come later- I need to make better sense of the late night readings before I post.
 

Read & React day 1

What a great first day, and tonight my brain is hurting in a good way, let the fun begin!

The Eisner text was so rich with information, art advocacy that I found it hard to speak to only a few of the points. Many of his points need to be displayed in the art room!
The first point that Eisner made over and over was how art is this essential part of life, how we all need it. For example, "Experience is central to growth because experience is the medium of education." (Eisner 2002) and "For young children the sensory world is a source of satisfaction, and imagination a source of exploratory delight." (Eisner 2002) Both of these speak to art being a basic need and how important art is for young children. When you speak of a world of sensory delight, I immediately think of K1, my kiddo that I discussed a lot last summer. He is legally blind, but as the year progressed he was able to even identify colors. But often times while we are working, we have to remind him to look at what he is doing, he still very much relies on all of his senses except vision and absolutely loves art.
Many times while reading the text, I felt that Eisner was making a references that are very relevant to what the common core is trying to do (which we have been doing all along), "The inscription of visual images makes vivid certain relationships. They help us to notice and understand a particular environment and our place in it." (Eisner 2002) and  "Similarly, if students are to learn to see and talk about visual qualities, they need occasions for such seeing and talking. (Eisner 2002). When students are given the repeated opportunities to talk about something and really take in the information given they are going to be so much more successful. Much of the first two chapters screamed for the need of Mary and VTS!
After our Symposium I'm hooked on Gude, but the Learning in a Visual Age article brought up many great points for the need for visual arts. The most important being that we bring to the table what most other classes do not. "They are also taught a remarkable array of habits not emphasized elsewhere in schools. These habits include observing, envisioning, innovating and reflecting " (learning in a visual age). As art teachers we need to know that we can provide students with tools that they will be looking for in the job force, creativity and innovation were brought up as important things that employers seek.
One last very important quote spoke to me for many reasons: "Gude has created public art that represents school curriculum and community values. She wonders: 'Why shouldn't every high quality school itself with products of student creativity?" (learning in a visual age). This speaks to the ideas we are discussing that art also needs to be presented. We need to give students the time and space to share and discuss and defend their artistic thinking even at a very young age. This also reinforces my own schools need to ignore what my administrator says and hang art EVERYWHERE!  I have been pondering on the idea that we would take art walks through the school and use them to discuss our art, as well as others. Use that time to identify where we see art that we wouldn't think we see art, such as taking a google street view walk and seeing what kind of art is in the city.

Pick a spark
Many of the sparks I was thinking about for myself personally, especially for our studio class, what a perfect time for these. But the one I chose for my students was "Yes and... never say no to an idea." I have chosen this spark for several reasons, I feel it will help my students get past their over awareness of how everyone including themselves, may judge their work. I also feel that my students are too often focused on if it is going out in the hall and once again how others will see this art. First I would start with "ideas" that my students and myself have been randomly putting together. Each child will pull an idea from the hat and no matte what, they need to make art about that idea, no matter how weird or silly this idea seems. This exercise repeated over time will help my students stop worrying so much about what others think, I also think they can sometimes have a hard time coming up with what they think is a good idea. This activity allows them to be more open to ideas in the future, allowing their creativity to flow without that protective block, it allows them to say yes to more ideas that are suggested by their peers.

AT Week 14

Gude!
Quote: Consider whether ALL your curriculum projects engage students in making meaning through meaningful making
What are the classroom implications for this statement? Describe how this might relate to your classroom experiences or how you predict this affecting classrooms of the future.

This would change curriculum's greatly. Currently my curriculum is based off the GLE's and standards. As Gude said these standards were made for what seemed best at the time. Now things have changed drastically, especially considering what technology had brought to the classrooms. I can definitely see curriculum's being redesigned and teachers be trained on meaningful art making. When i was young I don't recall being taught how to be a meaningful art makers. My high school art program was designed from an ancient curriculum and she still teaches the exact same lessons... almost 10 years later. I feel like I need a class on making meaning with my art, more conceptual art (woo hoo summer studio)! I can't even begin to image how different my lesson would look and my students would also function differently.

Do you agree or disagree with her statement or stance? Provide evidence to support or illustrate your thinking through examples.
I agree and disagree. I agree that my students would hugely benefit from being more meaningful art makers. This would help with their creativity, willingness and openness to self expression, and self confidence as artists. I also feel that this would help them become better at art discussions. On the other hand (and this might simply be from inexperience) I'm not so sure that all curriculum needs to be meaningful. What about something taught for the simplicity of the technique or for just plain fun? This is one of those thoughts in which you most ponder on for a period of time, and I feel the more I learn, the more I will lean towards totally agreeing with Gude.

VALUE ONE

engaging mess over keeping things neat

This is the value that comes closet to aligning with my own personal art making. I love the photos from the spiral workshop of the students learning from the mess. I like to play with nature and watercolor this way. I think if I was to run my classroom in this manner, well I would drive my administrators nuts. But putting that aside, This engaging myself with mess and what comes of it, has made me a more curious artist. Implementing this technique in the classroom would do great things for some and, as usual, cause problematic struggles for others. Maybe these struggles would teach them to work through the hurdles in their own work. This would make them more adventurous learners and explorers of art.

VALUE TWO

Value: authentic artistic processes, over mimicking styles

• Does the project re-create the actual experience of the antecedent art?
• Am I asking students to participate in “feeling fraud?”
• Feeling Fraud: pretending to experience and represent
• Feeling Fraud: playacting meaning making for the sake of the teacher

This was not a hard choice, Gude's suggestions are not at all how I run my studio or my classroom. She is a newer resource to me, and even though I enjoy her thoughts and points, She is very opposite of the way I was taught and currently think. I often teach my students about a style or culture of art, then we create art guided by the ideas and similarities of that style/artist. What is super ridiculous is that most of my skills were taught to me in college by mimicking style, with the hopes of learning from that experience ~ I never questioned why I was asked to learn this way! Wow- powerful moment here knowing that I was taught this way by people I respected in college, therefore I taught my students in the same manner without ever asking why!!! I wonder if this does make my students feel fraud? I cannot agree or disagree with this statement because it never made me feel fraud, like I was doing it for my teacher. It taught me techniques and strategies to my art making that have made me a better artist. I do however feel that this idea of meaningful art making over mimicking a style would be beneficial in the ways that I pointed out at the top. I think that this is an area that is not pursued enough by teachers and students, or myself. 

AT Final Project

1.      NAME: Kelley Schotte

2.      TITLE OF LESSON: Artistic Exploration

3.      GRADE LEVEL (S): 5^th grade

4.      STANDARDS:

·         NATIONAL VISUAL ARTS STANDARDS: Content standard 1: Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes.

·         SHOWME VISUAL ARTS STANDARDS: Goal 1.Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas. Goal 2. Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within and beyond classroom.

·         GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS (GLEs):S.III.1.A. Discuss and develop answers to questions about art, such as: Who decides what makes an artwork special, valuable or good. S.V.1.B. Compare and contrast two artworks on: Time, place, subject matter, Media, Use of elements, Theme, Purpose of art in culture, Use of materials and technology.

5.      RATIONALE and GOALS FOR THIS LESSON:

·         Why is this important to teach?  It is important to teach students how to “scratch” and where to scratch for ideas. This project leads them through this process, while educating their peers about the art that interests them.

·         What do you hope to accomplish? I hope to show students that they can easily teach one another. I also hope to accomplish excitement for art exploration that is based on the students’ interest.

6.      ENDURING BIG IDEA: (Define the BIG IDEA)

·         What is the big idea that is being investigated in this lesson? Artistic exploration based on the students artist/time period/style choice through research

·         How will you connect the big ideas about art and artists’ work with the art making part of this lesson? Students will learn the connection between the artist/time period/style they choose with the art piece they make. They will be learning the in’s and out’s of that process and making their own art piece to reflect what they have learned from that artist/time period/style.

7.      ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

·         What questions guide the lesson? Students need to be asking, “What am I interested in as an artist? What inspires me? How can I show this through my art?”

·         What will students discover and investigate? Students will investigate the artist/time period/style of their choice. They will also investigate how this choice can inspire their work.

·         What will you ask that will guide the purposeful exploration of materials that will produce meaningful content to the creative production? “What is it about this artist/time period/style that inspires you? What have you learned from it that can be applied in your work? Is there a particular message or idea that you want your art to convey?”

8.      KNOWLEDGE BASE AND KEY CONCEPTS:

·         What will students learn and KNOW about art and art making from this lesson?

o        Information and background on their artist/time period/style.

o        Need techniques with the media of their choice.

o        How to present information to their peers.

o        How and where to scratch for information and inspiration.

·         What will they learn from the art history and criticism discussion?

o        Students will learn to actively engage with other art by provide constructive criticism of their research and art work.

o        Students will be engaged in the learning about one particular artist/time period/style and all of its history.

·         What will they learn from the art production part of the lesson?

o        Students will learn new techniques in the media of their choice, while using their inspiration to produce their own piece.

9.      OBJECTIVES:

o        TSW research an artist/time period/style of their choice.

o        TSW present information to their peers using voice threads technology.

o        TSW create an artwork inspired by their research using the media of their choice.

o        TSW learn about their peer’s choice, as well as view their art, give constructive criticism through the use of voice threads.

10. VOCABULARY:

·        Voice Thread- online interactive presentation classroom.

·        More vocabulary opportunities will arise as they research, they will be addressed at that time.

11. LESSON VIGNETTE: Ideally the art teacher as well as the computer teacher would actually carry out this lesson. During computer specials, students will learn how to research their artist/time period/style. They will then learn how to step-by-step use voice threads to create a presentation and respond to others presentations. Both the computers teacher and myself will be actively working together as well as providing feedback in real time and on their voice thread presentation.

·         Anticipatory Set-  

o        Students will view a voice threads presentation from the teachers’ choice of artist/time period/style. They will also be able to view the teachers’ art created from the inspiration gained in the process.

o        What questions can you ask the students that will engage them and lead them to an understanding of the ideas in the lesson? Look as some of the examples of art around the room~ what do you like and dislike about them? Which ones inspire you? Which ones make you curious to know about their story/artist/history?

o        What questions will you pose about the art they view? When you are looking at the art, I want you to answer this question, “Could this artist/art work inspire me to make my own art?”

o        What questions will you use to put students in a position to understand the concepts, skills and techniques involved in your studio activity? As you find the top 6 pieces that interest you, ask yourself the following questions: What do they have in common? Are they made during the same time period? Are they made by the same artist? Are they the same style of art? What do I enjoy about all these pieces, their color choice, subject matter? With these things in mind student and art teacher will sit down and pick one specific artist/time period/style for the student to further research.

·         Body of lesson-

o        Day 1 Computer lab- begin research to learn more about your choice of artist/time period/style.

o        Day 2 Computer lab- Learn how to create a voice thread presentation. Homework to research at home, finding at least 4 facts outside of class time.

o        Day 3 Computer lab- research further saving picture and information that you feel need to be in your presentation.

o        Day 4 Computer lab- Complete voice threads presentation. (Required minimum length- 2 minutes, using at least 7 different slides with picture and information about your artist/time period/style.

o        Day 1 Art- Brain storm how your artist/time period/style has inspired you. What would you like to make? How will your art reflect what you have learned and how the artist/time period/style influenced you? What art supplies do you need to carry out this project? One on one check in with the art teacher.

o        Day 2-5 Art- create a piece of art that is inspired by your artist/time period/style.

o        Day 5 art- complete artist statement

o        Day 4-5 art homework- view at least 10 classmates’ presentations. Commenting in a constructive manner somewhere in their presentation.

o        Day 9 Computers-Type artist statement.

·         Closure-

o        Day 6 art- Live art gallery, students will spend time looking at each other’s pieces reading their artist statements, and giving constructive criticism on sticky notes as they view the art.

§         Turn in the following:

§         Research notes

§         Final art piece with artist statement

§         Sticky note feed back left by your fellow artists.

§         Homework- Answer the following questions and turn in the following art class:

§         If I could do this project again, what would I change?

§         Who/what would I research next time?

§         What was a great thing one of my peers did with their art project?

12. ASSESSMENT/RUBRIC: 

·        Students will be assessed on the following:

1.      Researching their artist- participation in and out of class.

2.      Creating a presentation with the new technology of voice thread. Minimum length: 2 minutes, 7 different slides.

3.      Providing constructive criticism to peers presentations, minimum of 10 posts.

4.      Creating a piece of art that reflect what you have learned, as well as how you are inspired by your artist/time period/style.

5.      Create a reflective artist statement ready for presentation.

6.      Actively engaging with others artwork and providing feedback to all peers artwork.

7.      Completing a reflection of what if.

13. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND ADAPTATIONS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS:

·         How will you differentiate for your diverse classroom population? Knowing my students well, I will guide them toward the topic that will challenge time as a researcher and an artist.

·         How will you keep students engaged? Students will be checking in with art and computer teachers throughout the process, as well as being partnered with someone in class to give active feedback and ideas.

·         What will you do to challenge students who are highly talented? Those who are highly talented will be challenged to step outside of their creative box and push themselves with new ideas and techniques.

·         What have you planned for those who finish early? For those who finish early, they will need to spend sometime looking at what their peers are doing, and then going back to their piece to assess what more can they do to their piece. If more time is still available, they will be challenged to create a game that teachers their peers about their artist/time period/style, for example, a crossword, word search, word scramble for vocabulary.

14. MATERIALS, TEACHING RESOURCES/REFERENCES:

·        Materials needed for this project include internet access with the ability to record themselves talking, Art supplies that each student chooses to work with, clay, paint, drawing tools etc. Students need to be able to access www.voicethreads.com. The teacher will need to gather a lot of artwork, and label them with artist, time period and style for students to pick their choice.

15. PREPARATION REQUIRED:

·         What materials, tools, and resources do you need for this class? Time needs to be spent in the computer lab with both teachers making sure they can find websites that are safe, and reliable for students to research with. Teachers also need to make sure all the voice thread program elements are working correctly at school.

·         What do you need to practice and prepare for this lesson? Both teachers will prepare a presentation on their artist/time period/style as well as a piece of art inspired by their research.

16. TEACHER REFLECTION: How will you know that this lesson is successful and meaningful? List indicators.

·        Constant student feedback is the number on indicator of what they are learning and what is meaningful for them with this process.

 

 

AT Week 13

Stretching Exploring and PLAY!
Read and React~
Well this weeks readings make me smile- One of my books I read for this class was all about Play! I love the idea of the freedom that play provides our students. It helps them to grow and experiment, and most importantly learn. I am loving the idea of "Jason's" ceramics play assignment~ This is my assignment to myself tomorrow when I get to work, simply playing with the clay to see where it leads me and what ideas it leads me to, without the thought of a finished project idea- Just good old fashioned play :)

Which brings me to another thought that I kept having during this unit and if I don't get it out now, I will not be able to focus on the rest of the assignments at hand. So here was my thought.... What if my room was for artistic play? What if I could teach art for elementary kids in a way that resembles middle/high school level? What if my lessons were more open and not so regimented and structured? What would that look like you and I both are asking~ maybe instead of a seating chart we would simply have play stations. These stations would hold different media for students to play and become familiar with. The idea being that they I could still use my curriculum and standards to guide us, but they would not be working at the same assignment as another student. Maybe that means I would need to have video prompts with information about the particular media they are playing with, like mini lectures with the research links so that students could spend time using their brain to learn and play!  Ha it sounds so Artopia- but doable...
What stands in the way? It has to connect to the required gle's etc. Can a kindergarten student handle this... Maybe with practice, or is this too much of an independent work time all year for my elementary kids?!?!  Also I feel a lot of 3-d projects would emerge from this exploration, how am I going to store all of that?
This could be a really cool way for me to run my 3-5 grade classes, but it would be difficult to change out the stations everyday to prep for a totally different style of teaching for K-2.
Any thoughts/idea/creative input would be greatly appreciated :)

Back to the reading. So I really enjoyed the idea of the teacher who had her kids "sketching with clay" and creating things just to smash it. Ahhh this could open some amazing doors for some of my kids, yet cause major melt downs for others. This idea of stretching and exploration is something that should be implemented into curriculum's more. I think students do this in writing and other creative classes, but as many of the speakers and writers from this week stated, everything is very serious now in education. Many believe that you cannot learn while playing, that you are simply using silliness and not gaining anything. What a genius idea to wear a white suit to a meeting, and then write all over each other... the meeting comes back with you, always there for you to refer back to, but then you can take it off "and the really work/fun begins." I once watched a documentary about an inner city school who gained a new principal and many new staff members that ran the school to be more student exploration driven~ Long story short, it was a very different feel than the traditional classroom today, and the line/wait list to get in was huge. The students were motivated by the fact that their education was made to fit their interests and needs. They were allowed to play and learn freely. Still gaining the concepts needed, but in a more self satisfying way. Wow- what a way to teach and learn :) One of the videos made the comment that when we play, we are learning in a fully encompassing way. With more implementation of play as a teaching strategies, I do believe students will not only be happier, but also better learners, and more creative problem solvers, as well as great with groups, but will learn how to be more independent learners and explorers!