Last week at Beattie, we worked more heavily with concept in art making, alongside the idea of collaboration. Students were asked to create a creature that would be in a circus on the moon.  Students drew their circus creature, they then had to tell a story about how they found and hired their creature for their circus. Students were very engaged through this process, they were working as a team, they were effectively communicating, and incorporating aspects of every students work. The part that was the most exciting for me to see was when students were talking about aspects of each of their group members drawings from the sketchbook prompt. They were really taking into consideration everyone's ideas, what might be interesting to add to their creature. I also saw very little arguing or someone trying to take control, most groups were effective in their communication, and they were respectful of all ideas. Students also were thinking of creative stories for how they found and hired their creatures. They thought up stories that connected in unique ways with the creature they created. This is something shows us that students were connected with what they were making and were making meaningful connections to that art making. For my piece this week to connect with this idea, I took two separate plant shapes, with different colors, and slowly they became half and half when they met in the middle. This is connecting to the idea of two separate ideas becoming one, and the idea of taking all the separate aspects and bringing them together. This is collaboration in the art classroom, and that is what students were focusing on during this class period. I also created this piece similar to the format of a story. It was a long piece of fabric, and each step was in one block of the piece, therefore creating a story like board. This connects further to what the student were doing in the writing of their stories. 

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This is in connection with our class discussions on making meaningful art. While we were talking about social justice lesson plans, I think it connects with the idea of making meaningful art. Students are much more engaged when they have a connection to their art, they are making it for a reason, not just to fulfill specific requirements. This lesson in specific taught me that there are ways to have students make art that connects to who they are without having a full choice classroom. I think I would like to have a choice based classroom one day, however this allowed for me to see the potential in many different types of classrooms. Students were making art that they were excited about making, and that is one of the most important parts of art education for me. If students are making something that they connect with, and something that they care about that is really all I can ask for as a teacher. That means they are learning through their art making both about the process and how to make art as well as how to make conceptual art that they connect with. This connected for me to last semester when we discussed all the different types of art classrooms, and the different methods for teaching art education. Most of the methods and ways of teaching can allow for meaningful art to be created, and I think seeing it in these different forms has helped me to get a better understanding. In the past, I had thought of art education as how I was taught, which for a lot of my education was making art based on very prescriptive assignments. This didn't necessarily allow for me to create art that was meaningful, but I think throughout my time at CSU, my perspective on art education has broadened and shifted, to making art that is based on a connection to the students life, and therefore art that is meaningful to them in their life beyond my classroom. 

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I also think in education in general, collaboration is a huge part of what should be taught. No matter where students end up and what they end up doing, they will need to collaborate in some way. This is something that is important to work on at a young age, because often when children are young they are very focused on themselves. If we teach them to work together though, they can better understand others, and they can become better that collaboration, which is something that will be important throughout their lives. As a kid, I was always really quiet, I didn't speak up in class very often, I didn't talk very often in general. At the time I didn't like working in groups because that meant that I had to talk to people. However, I see now experiences like this helped me, I got better at talking and contributing. It is something that I still struggle with to this day, because I am naturally a very reserved and quiet person, but I see the importance and the need for collaboration. This is also something that I want to bring to my own classroom, because I understand what it is like to be quiet and not like to talk. I think it is important as a teacher to be understanding of this, and allow for communication in other forms than talking. When I was a kid, if I got to write feedback, I said so much more than I would have talking. This is something that I think can help many kids. I still think it is important to introduce the idea of collaboration, that simply might look different for different kids personalities. 

 

Personally, this experience was eye-opening. I have rarely seen an elementary classroom that was more engaged in art making, and that was  really exciting. I think creating lessons that allow for this to happen is one of my biggest goals as a teacher. I truly believe that art is one of the most important classes in a school, we all need to develop ways of expressing ourselves, that is how we communicate to other people. This can be through words, but it can also be through the visual arts. Expression is something that should also be developed at a young age, because that allows for students to get a better understanding of themselves as a person. They can better understand who they are and their place in the world. So, for me personally, this experience allowed for me to see this in action, I could see students expressing themselves, I could see their personal connection to the work. 

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I think that in the future as an art teacher, I will work to incorporate collaboration that is meaningful to the students, and allows for them to develop their own ideas while at the same time collaborating and thinking about others ideas. I also think developing lessons that allow for meaningful concepts to emerge is something that I will focus on a lot in my future classroom. This can allow for engaged art making, as well as a better understanding of things that are important to them.