“What you decide to teaches matters. It is the single most important decision that you can make as a teaching artist. It informs every other aspect of your teaching and is the place. To begin, always, when you are heading into a new teaching situation. It is also worthwhile to return again and again to this question and reexamine what matters to you as you develop your practice as artist and teacher.” Pg. 3
This is a question I’ve been asking myself almost every day in the Art Education Program. I’ve moved between Elementary or High School, Paint or Graphic Design, AP Art. The decisions seem endless and to have such different ramifications. What I’ve found is that I really need to look into myself find who I am and make decisions accordingly. I’ve been asking the Teacher I TA for what she thinks my strengths are and that was one of the most helpful things I did. She told me one of my major strengths was energy and Art History. So I’ve been curating my curriculum to include Art History. My entire curriculum is dedicated to showing students how Art moved from strict ridged representation to contemporary/ conception art. Finding something so suited to my personality and skill set has really changed how I was feeling about running my own classroom and I’ve been so excited about it all. “We don’t help students by making shallow connections between subjects and domains of knowledge. Shallow or forced integration can often distract students from learning what we are trying to teach.” Pg. 15 This quote really reinforced to me I was making the right choice for my curriculum theme by using Art History with it’s rich history and it’s connections with humanity in general. I really feel like my students will benefit from the thought provoking issues we will examine and why such institutional shaking art processes arose from the Art movements such as the impressionists and the Abstract Expressionist and how they lead artist to freedom and the contemporary art we have now. “We should see part of our job as teaching artists to reject both the stereotyping of our students and of all artists. We should seek the broadest possible artistic and personal experience for our students and kick open the doors to educational and other institutions where we work to allow access to all artists on their own terms.” Pg 20 I asked my self the questions he asked starting on page 19 about if there were ulterior motives within the classroom politically, it was an idea I’d never had before. I don’t think this will be a problem for me I tend to remain politically neutral. Though I do suppose I care a lot about ethical practices and environmental practices that benefit us all as the human race. The only things I could see pushing with my students is taking care of our planet and so it’s around for generations after us and avoiding toxic chemical processes in art making for their own health. “If you can’t read in the sixth grade it will mess with your head. If you have to dodge crossfire or go hungry or attend a completely segregated school it will mess with your soul, often deeply. If you dont’ have the funds, or it’s too dangerous, to travel outside your neighborhood, it will narrow your view of the world. If you have fear being regularly hassled or worse by the cops, or ICE because of the color of your skin it can wear you down and tear you up in a thousand ways.But although conditions, color and ethnicity make us, they do not define us. Each of our students is unique, and we find this out quickly if, as teaching artists, we relate to them as fellow artists.” Pg 22 This quote I just had to add because I love the empathy of it. It takes you and puts you right into how it would be. It helped change my perspective and open me to the idea the each of my students will be bringing in the outside world with them. Their own universes and I can’t just expect them to enter my classroom and leave it all behind. I’m really interested in the idea of compiling outlets for them to express themselves and to find themselves with in Art and the projects and studio time they receive while in my classes. This chapter was really inspirational I got so much out of it. I'd keep writing about all the quotes I highlighted and loved but this post is getting really long. I learned so much
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Myleka Bevans
Classwork for Art 450 Archives
December 2018
Categories |