Shoebox Activity and Artifacts

This week we had to bring in a shoebox and whatever items we would fill it with if we could only take what was in the box. This was an interesting activity for me, because I was basically living with what you could fill a shoebox with at the time. My daughter was born and sent right to the NICU and I had to make use of some clothes, but only what I kept as essentials stayed with me beyond that. For my activity I had my hospital band, phone, camera, laptop, watch, and wallet on me. I kept these with me at the hospital and at school. I carried them everywhere I went. I realized as this activity was going on, these are my cultural tools, and why they are significant enough to take them with me everywhere and everyday.

This activity is a good way to look at what defines us, and this in turn is a great first step in helping students to gain a concept of culture. These things I carried might not have been tools for surviving the great outdoors, but they were tools for surviving my culture. I needed these things for the days at school and at the hospital. My world depended on it. That is a great starting place for culture and cultural tools. Someday down the line, people  might scoff or laugh at what I would have taken with me at that point, much the way we might scrutinize the tools a caveman took with them. But to the time and place- these things matter. That is an important aspect of a globally integrated world that we and our children will probably live in. They need to understand the context of time, place, and culture in order to learn how to respect and coexist with other peoples.

Van Gogh meets Dr. Seuss

In an older project that I took down this week, I realized I had not included it in my previous blogs. The project was to take a Van Gogh painting done in the Impressionism style and mix the art with something that we could create in Dr. Seuss's style. I think it would be fun to do this during Dr. Seuss week (which I don't know if all schools celebrate). It was a fun project because it encouraged us to re-work somebody else's art while simultaneously making our own.

I learned that the Impressionism style is done with layers of paint and many brushstrokes, with only primary colors. To achieve the balance and colors that they wanted, the artists really had to know how to mix contrasting colors and schemes that would produce the paintings that they wanted. I think that both of the styles used brought artwork that encouraged thought and are still largely appreciated today.

Home and cinquain poetry

Today in class we worked with a new type of poetry (for me), and combined this with the use of pictures about our homes. The lesson behind the pictures of "home" was a broad and inclusive concept in which we challenged ourselves to think about the possible variations our students might reserve for the word home. Taking a picture of our own home is an opportunity to show students that we are just people as well, it breaks through this barrier of teachers as school faculty. The use of photography and simple poetry, the cinquain poetry, created a dynamic project in which we not only showed a picture of where our "home" is, but we worked with creative imagery describing our homes. From this we then made mobiles that brought all of the pieces together. I think that this could be a great way for the teacher to get to know the students, and where the students are coming from in the classroom. As any good icebreaker project, I think that it would be the most effective to be done at the beginning of the year. Here is a link to a generator that can create cinquain poems for you.

Drama Conclusion

In our classroom conclusion to our drama section of the course, we performed a redone version of "Wolf in the Hood". Our version ended up being radically different that the original in which we were all involved in the "Dating Game". The classroom was in an uproar as the three contestants battled for Wolfie's attention, and I am glad that Wolfie was wearing a mask because I was probably red from laughter.

The drama portion of my course surprised me because I was dreading it so badly, and yet every activity that we had in class was so much fun. I walked out of there everyday I laughing, and feeling like I experienced something new. I hope to keep the drama integrations in my class, because I have seen some of them in action and I was very impressed with the benefits in vocabulary acquisition.

Salt Dough

For our final in class project we did salt dough, and Mike and I chose to make ours after the Coloseum. In our picture you can see a yellow lion viciously killing a gladiator (depicted by the macaroni noodles). There is a chariot and horse riding around the arena taking part in the bloodsport that was the Coloseum. Although our picture depicts the brutal reality of European history, the salt dough was fun and easy to make. The ingredients are here!

The salt dough is a great alternative to the expensive classroom use of clay. It can be made relatively quickly and is non-toxic. It can be painted as well.

Introduction to Music

This week in art class we started working on music. We were all asked to bring in our favorite piece of music and share it with the class. I brought in "59th Street Bridge Song" by Simon and Garfunkel. The entire album reminds me of a time when I gave my dad's music a shot and really started to enjoy music that I had not heard on the radio.

Bringing this piece in to share with the class was another experience in which I felt that I had opened myself up for scrutiny by exposing a piece of my life. In return the rest of the class also shared with me their favorite music. By the end of the activity I felt that we all knew a bit more about each other and that was informative and a special moment.

Following the sharing of our music, we got to investigate some different ideas about how we could use music in the classroom and benefits of doing it. I like this idea of bringing fundamental human culture to the classroom because students want and deserve a real experience. The more of it we can provide through enriching facets of our activities the better we have served our classroom, school, and community.

Geography Activity

Today we worked with the overarching subject of Geography in the classroom. I thought it was interesting how many different concepts can be introduced and linked under the Geography 'umbrella', as it was so aptly named in class. There were many activities talked about at surface level, but the one that stuck so deeply brought it close to home.

While looking at this subject we talked about our favorite places that we have experienced and why we chose to share them. This took me to a very happy place at the bottom of a mountain in Colorado. I have been there twice and probably spent an entire week there altogether. Somehow though, I feel like I have years in that spot. It is so alive in my mind that thinking and talking about it in class reminds me of the wonder of that place. I think this would be a great way for students to bring places and locations alive for each other in the classroom.

Anyways, this was a fun exercise to spread our knowledge of places to others (along with pictures), and would have many applications in our elementary classrooms. I plan on bringing fun knowledgeable approaches to Geography in my classroom.

And to top it off I have posted a picture roughly from where I wrote about in my classroom journal.

Geographic Garble

In class today we investigated a fun way to introduce students to different towns in a fun and very creative activity known as "Geographic Garble". The concept is hard to explain, and at first it felt like we were dealing with complex coded language. After working with a couple of the towns in a packet we got to make our own in our assigned state.

After creating some of the garbles for our state we saw some interesting ways to give our classmates a hint and still keep the mystery of the activity intact. Using concepts about maps, such as grids, we could lead our classmates to the correct answer without ruining the fun. Great class activity, with an art integration.

Here is Montana's Geographic Garble.

A new meaning for art

Today a classmate shared with me a very special piece of art. The piece was from a family member who has passed away. The art quite obviously means a lot to my classmate, and I cannot describe how touching it was for her to share it with me.

The piece itself conveys a lot about the artist that made it. I loved seeing something done by someone over 30 years ago, simply for the sake of expression. It was interesting to see all the elements and creativity that the piece entailed, along with the artist's very unique and crafty pen work. The drawings were all very well done, but when placed together, it made for a piece that I could have looked at for hours. With my own interest in a piece like that, my friend's attachment to the artpiece, and my increasing appreciation for art- I gained an insight at another meaning for art.

Art, when it is something we love and enjoy creating, maintains a piece of us in it. It isn't just a reflection, but something more. We give the paper (or whatever medium chosen), aspects of ourselves. Our dynamic, soulful, flawed, beautiful human nature is put into our work. We couldn't explain our entire self in one piece of art, but then again, we couldn't explain our entire self using words and imagery if we lived for a thousand years. People are so much bigger on the inside, and art allows us to let a flash of that out. In some cases it evokes a question, makes us think, makes us cry, steals our gaze, or just causes us to look twice. In any case, it is significant. To that end, I now see a beauty in the frailty of art. It is destructible. It shouldn't be. But neither should we be. It can be stolen, destroyed, and defaced; much like human beings. That's why we need to safeguard it, learn to respect it, and teach others how to do the same. Thank you Julie.

Seeing My "Immural" hung up in the classroom

When I came into class today I saw my artwork hung up on the classroom wall. It made me feel good when one of my classmates pointed it out and said they hung it up there for me. I am not typically proud of any artwork that I have created, until I made that piece. It was exposing, divulging, and risky making a piece like that. After the fact I have never really felt better about any of my other artwork. I look up at it with pride, and I found myself today thinking about what else I would like to make in that style.

Sculpture

As I started my fourth and final piece of artwork for my art class, I had a lot of interests on what materials to use for my sculpture piece. I thought that it would be interesting to do a recycled art piece but I would have had to find something junk to make anything out of (which I don't have). I was interested in making an accordion paper sculpture like the ones that Li Hongbo has created. I started to question about the time and money that could go into all of the layers of paper. As I set out to create the paper sculpture, I backpedalled on my other ideas, and realized that I have always had an interest in sculpting using clay but never had an opportunity. I spoke to one of my classmates about the Crayola self drying clay. It did not take me long to arrive at the subject of my sculpting, my dog Fedor. What better subject than Fedor for my hand created piece, because I know the shape of his face and head far better than my own. My job is petting that dog. So I started, and this was the conclusion of my work after the first night. I didn't have to look at him or call him into the room for sizing. My hands knew what the piece should feel like which made the rest really easy.
Here is a link to Li Hongbo's website, which features some of his amazing work.

Dragonfly Pond Project

This past week we completed our "Dragonfly Pond", (through Project Wild) community project in which each member of the class constructed a house and a business to contribute to the town. I think we settled on the name,"Circletown", in relation to our Facebook group of IUSB elementary education majors. The project was very dynamic in that it inspired all of us to ask some pedagogical questions about how we could teach civics using this community model in our classroom. We also went deeper into the heart of a successful community on many different levels. This was an intriguing process looking at the structures we inadvertently depend on to create the order and structure in our lives. Altogether this is a great way to look at the aspects of infrastructure and government, and hopefully devise some creative and engaging ways to educate our students.

Found Art Project Reflection: "Forest Face"

I didn't think much of my found art project (for ideas), as I collected pieces for it. I was really open to what I might create once the time came and I had to put imagination into creation. I of course loved the trip to Bailley Homestead and Chellberg Farms, so taking random things on the walk was fun and easy.

When it came time to create something, I really just let the objects become something. It seemed like it was going fast but as I looked at my creation, I enjoyed everything about it. The pieces all seem to fit to make some sort of a face. That was several weeks ago, and a lot has happened both in, and out of class, since then.

Now, I find myself constantly looking at the piece on the wall in my art classroom. I look at it, and the piece that I created helps me to remember so much more about the trip that we took that day, the weather, conversations that I had, information about the location, and the class in which I created that piece. I feel a clear connection between content, emotions, and experience when I look at "Forest Face".

Illustrator Art: Dr. Who Meets Quentin Blake (as seen by me)

      This week my art project was illustrator art. It took me a while to find an iconic figure that I wanted to envision through illustrator Quentin Blake's creative lens. I ended up with Dr. Who, in one of my favorite story arcs promotional posters. I found that while I created this piece, I ended up reliving some of my fondest moments of both the television series and the works Blake's art is associated with (largely Roald Dahl). Just through creating a piece of my own, I was given this opportunity to relive experiences and remember my appreciation for them, as well as connect with why I enjoyed them both initially. This lead me thinking about the power that art integration can have in school.
      Creating our own meaning will come in a variety of mediums and forms but given the time and opportunity, the concepts covered take deeper roots. I realized during this experience that much of our learning could be improved by the creative process being added to our experience. We take the time to teach, expect them to learn, but ultimately we have to provide the opportunity to create with the knowledge we want our students to retain.

A Walk in the Woods

This week the class took a field trip to the Bailly Homestead & Chellberg Farm. It was a great experience to get a tour of such an interesting and historical site. The weather and the season made for a great photography experience. I think that my favorite part was the opportunity to walk through several of the old houses at the location. After walking through a place like this, I realized how much I wish more local cultures, sub-cultures, and eras would have allowed preservation of their homes and lifestyles. Walkthroughs like this are the best time capsules we have, I hope to integrate multidimensional learning field trips like this one into my classroom one day.

Grandparent's Week

In art we have been working on Grandparent's Day projects. I thought that this would be a difficult exercise, but as I gave it time I worked through some of the emotional difficulties attached with the grandparents project. After reflecting for a while, moving back through time (past a lot of loss), I came to a happy memory. It was an incredible motivation for creating the art project. This was the first time I had painted as an adult. I am really happy about my project.