It has been a while. I haven't been able to sit down and work on this site very much because in my spare time, I am working towards my Master's degree in education. It has really taken a large chunk of time, but it is totally worth it, because I am learning so much. I am working on being a better teacher and with that, learning about different ways to communicate learning to staff and families. I will be mainly using an Instagram account to share work. It is so easy to upload pictures right from the iPad and parents can access the site easily! I will not be posting the Instagram account information here because it is a semi-private account. I would like to make sure that Lowell families are the only ones seeing our work. The information is available on the school newsletter. I will also have a slip with the information at conferences. I hope it helps keep everyone up to date with the classroom happenings!
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WHY ART??? I have some family members (that know me very well) that were surprised when I stated my school major was going to be Art Education. At that time, I might have just been choosing something I thought was fun and sort of met my interests, but since then I have grown more passionate about kids, art, and our future. Webster's Dictionary defines creativity as: "Ability to produce something new through imaginative skill, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form. The term generally refers to a richness of ideas and originality of thinking. Psychological studies of highly creative people have shown that many have a strong interest in apparent disorder, contradiction, and imbalance, which seem to be perceived as challenges. Such individuals may possess an exceptionally deep, broad, and flexible awareness of themselves. Studies also show that intelligence has little correlation with creativity; thus, a highly intelligent person may not be very creative." To me, creativity is problem solving. Our world needs problem solving more than ever. A friend described a "real" artist as "someone who does art all the time, no matter what, even if they are not in a class". By that definition, I would not be a real artist. Even in college I was not the student who stayed in the ceramic studio or painting studio all night long to get more practice, or just for fun. I called those students "art or die" students, and I was not one of them. I balanced my time with other activities like swimming/exercise, work, and hanging out with friends. I thought maybe I wasn't as good of an artist because I made those choices. I know now, even though I rarely have time to make art for art sake still, that this alone doesn't make an artist. Anyone can be an "artist" when they live in a way when creativity can help solve problems. I know that tapping into ones creativity can open new doors. I teach that to my students by rarely giving them another piece of paper if they have "messed up". I know this sounds silly, but in most cases of a "mess-up" I have students fix it. This is problem solving at it's best! And problem solving is the key to our future!! There are so many problems that need new and creative solutions and we are the ones to unlock the keys to creativity with our kids!
Fourth graders are finishing some optical illusions. They studied the work of Bridget Riley and felt the power of her optical illusion work. We studied more work that tricked the eye. It was fun to see work that looked like it was moving! Writing and reading are important skills for us all and elementary is the place to learn how to to do this. Not just learn, but love it! Learn to love what writing and reading can bring to your life! I encourage correspondence with students, by having this mailbox on my desk. Sometimes it has a picture, or paper scraps, or a marble like it did today when I checked, but there are times when a student has actually written me a letter. I try to respond as promptly as possible with a message and follow-up questions to keep the interaction going. The days are so busy and classes so full, we often miss the opportunity to get to know the students who might need our attention most. I will never forget DeNeisha, a student that was so quiet, other staff in the building could hardly remember who she was. DeNeisha started writing letters to me in 1st grade and continued through 2nd grade. I really got to know this student and we had a special connection. She still did not talk much and staff still took little notice of her, but she has changed me. She ended up moving out of our school boundary and going to a different school. I still write to her, although I haven't yet this school year. I hope she thinks of her time here and me with fondness. But just in case it slips her mind, I will write to her today. Reading and writing are a gift! Give someone a present of a note or read them a book today! When I tell you what happened the other day, you won't believe me. It sounds like a fib. It is something that has never happened before and will probably never happen again. It was amazing!! I had a first grade class in my room and they were being talkative (that is not the amazing thing). They had to put their heads down because of this (again, not amazing). It was the first day when I was introducing an owl project. We had watched a short video on the owl and were almost ready to start. As I walked to the window side of the room, something outside caught my eye........ An owl flew up into a tree in the school's yard (AMAZING!). I had the whole class get out of their seats and go to the windows. The owl was a bit away, so I had to direct their sight to the spot where he sat. After 10 or 15 minutes of locating it for the kids, it pooped. We were amazed! I wanted him to fly away, so everyone could see him in action. I opened the window and WHOO'ed out at it, hoping to make it look or move. This did not work, so we just continued to observe until he flew away on his own. We were all jumping and cheering. It was an amazing experience. I walked the students back to their class and they were telling everyone we came into contact with that they had seen an owl and it pooped! Yes, it was all true, and it was amazing!! This week in the art room we had visitors from Tanzania! A group from Viewpoint Adventures in Tanzania came to talk about their counrty and what life and school is like there. The visitors talked about the land and the animals, but mostly wanted to tell our students to take advantage of every educational minute that we can. We can lose a phone, a car, or even your house, but no one can take your education away from you! Some kids there walk up to 6 miles to school, then back again. Lunch, if there is any to provide, is the same, beans and corn, every day. There are 60-100 students to 1 teacher in 1 classroom. The students and teacher are lucky if they have a chalkboard and chalk to use. The visitors took pictures of the technologies we have and were blown away by the school. It was very interesting to talk to these men and I am grateful and humbled by the advantage our kids have just by being here in America. I hope we all are aware of this and take advantage of the privledges we have and make the world a better place. Lowell students come to art once a week (sometimes twice on wacky Wednesday!). My goal is to update this site once a week to keep my many readers updated with all the things happening in the art room. As you can plainly see, it has been about a month since I have done so. I will not give any excuses, as we all have busy lives and things to do. Believe me when I say, we are having fun in the art room, but not only having fun, we are learning as well, but not only learning :) we are becoming problem solvers too!! This year when someone "messes up", students sharing a table will work together to give ideas to solve the percieved "problem". We will work together as a small group community to help the student who has a problem. In doing this, our sense of community will grow stronger, our problem solving skills will become greater and students will accomplish their goals! Lowell is a great place to grow and good things are happening all around our school, but here in the art room, once a week, My mom cuts out lots of comic strips and gives them to me. I don't know when I got this one, or even who the artist is, but it is one that has been posted in my room for YEARS. First of all, it's funny. Secondly, It reminds me about what we expect from our kids and how expectations can and should change. Lots of adults tell me. "I can only draw stick people". 1. That's ok (see comic). 2. I doubt that. Art always amazes me. Kids can be surprisingly creative and no two project outcomes are alike. This job reminds me every day to be flexible and embrace those creative moments. My hope for my students is that they face the world with confidence in their ability to draw stick people and beyond....... Attitude and Effort are 2 words that I repeat a lot in the ART room! When we talk about attitude to kids, it's usually in a negative way. "You have an attitude" is something that people might say. Kids think that attitude is a bad thing, but I let them know it is simply the way you act! So we can have a GOOD ATTITUDE! In ART class I will be asking students to try something new, and the first time we try something, we are probably not the best at it. When I rode a bike for the first time, I fell over. I tried again, because I liked it. Good attitudes are important in life (and art class)!! Some tasks come very easily to some, but most of us have to WORK HARD to get what we want! This is when putting forth EFFORT in class is very important. The harder we try at something, the better we will be, and more importantly, the more we learn! We are going to try hard in ART CLASS. Sometimes things might not turn out as we had expected, and that is when having a good attitude will be helpful to us all! Welcome to Lowell Elementary ART CLASS! |
AuthorMy name is Rachel (or Mrs. N. depending on how old you are) and this is my ART teaching blog-like-thing. Archives
October 2015
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