Art: Week of Tuesday, April 12th

          I have had many times in my life that I have needed to work in groups for school, clubs, family and other things.  For school, teachers sometimes assign group projects and then sometimes its nice to start a study group with others!  If everyone does their own part, then the group is successful, but at times collaborations can be hard if not everyone does their part.  Being on a team, you have to know what  your job is and how to do it.  Everyones job is usually different and if someone doesn't do their job, the project will not be good.  People count on each other and it is not fair if one person isn't pulling their weight.  
          I really like being part of a group for the rural topic because it is a big project and doing it alone would be hard.  I also like how each of the team members think of different ideas and together we collaborate and put all of our ideas together to form a really good project!  In the classroom, students have all sorts of different creative ideas.  If they all get together in different groups they can share their ideas with each other.  Usually when problems are challenging it is best to talk to others to try and figure it out.  Sometimes 2 heads are better than one.  Also, when teaching citizenship, students could work together and share what they think is right and how they can contribute to society!  People like hearing other peoples ideas because sometimes they would have never thought of them on their own. 

Art: Week of Tuesday, March 29th

          The New Children's Museum was great!  From the moment I stepped in the building I was drawn to everything surrounding me.  The fact that I am 21 years old and loving the place, I am sure that younger children love it even more.  There was so much color and life to the place that I could stay in there for hours.  What I liked most about the museum was that everything was hands on!  Kids were not there to sit and write sentences, but to explore new ideas.  There were different sections of the museum that had different activities, so a kid was never stuck at one station.  There were so many different things that you could do at each station.  For example, in the Rain House, not only did we make a Thunderstorm, but we counted the birds on the walls, and we noted the colors that were used to decorated the house and why that was relevant.  The media art was appropriate because it got students thinking in a different way!  Students were so intrigued with each different thing going on.  
          There was a lot of entertainment, but it was educational entertainment!  This was great because kids were learning as they had fun!  

Art: Week of March 22, 2011

        Media art has taken a new spin on art and has enabled it to be taken to the next level.  Photography, one of my personal favorite pieces of art, has enabled artists to add, take away, and enhance pictures.  Taking pictures is fun, but by the time a person touches the photo up, it could be changed into a whole new picture.  Sandy Skoglund's Radiocative Cats photo, was one that stood out to me.  The whole time you look at the photo your eyes wonder around, there is not one dull spot in the picture.  The placement of the cats and how they contrast with the grey really makes the photo pop. 
          Kids always love to get up and move in the classroom and making a video about a topic that they are learning would be the perfect way to get students excited about a topic.  They could each be a part in a play and make their own "accessories" to add to themselves to play their part in the video.  Later that week you can play the video for them!
          Luz Chung's presentation was very eye opening.  I really liked how she started off her presentation with the video clip from the Daily Show.  I cannot believe how people would pass things because of what one person would say.  Students need to be learning about things that they don't know, but how will they learn about important people if we don't include them in the text books.  The woman on the board's main excuse for not including the information in the text book was because the man wasn't famous enough.  This is concerning as an incoming teacher because now I know that I am going to need to teach a lot more to my students than what is provided in the text book.  
          Every student in the classroom is important and has a different background.  As a teacher I really need to know each of my students and their backgrounds.  After taking my multi-cultural class I really started to recognize how important it is to not only talk about the different cultures, but experience them.  Taking the students on field trips or showing them photos or videos can really help them understand the importance of where people come from.  Each student needs to be encouraged and know that they can do anything that they put their minds to and it is my job to make sure that each one feels included! 

Art: Week of March 8th, 2011

SDMA VISIT!

          I have never been to the SDMA, so I was really excited to go.  Balboa Park has a beautiful atmosphere, so the outside and the inside of the museum were warm and welcoming.  Having a tour guide was essential because he knew a lot of information about the artwork and about how the museum was set up, so we not only learned about different pieces of art, but we could ask questions if we needed to.  What I liked most about the Museum was that it had all different types of artwork.  Each piece of art was unique in its own way, but it was neat how we could compare and contrast them.  I really enjoyed learning about the different mediums that each artist used to create their piece and how they could relate to different educational concepts (Math, History, Science, and Literature)
          I definitely think that museums like SDMA are viable and accessible.  Every person that worked at the museum was very welcoming and wanted us to come back.  They even gave us folders that we could keep that had contact information.  Having young students attend museums is a great learning experience and it can open their eyes to new ideas.  They will also learn to make connections between art pieces and learn about the history of not only the piece of art, but the artist as well.  I also liked how this museum was kid friendly and had different stations where kids could explore different ideas and quiz themselves on what they learned.  Once I am a teacher, I will definitely take my students to art museums because they will learn a lot about not only art, but different subjects as well and they will have fun! 

Art: Week of March 1, 2011

Sculptural Headdress:

          When I first heard that we were going to get to make our own headdresses, I got really excited.  Most days, I usually wear an accessory (flower or headband) in my hair for fun, but I learned that in some cultures people wear headdresses for different purposes, such as religion.  I love adding things to my hair, so it was fun being able to create my own headdress.  In class, we read two Cinderella Stories, Cinderella and the Rough Faced Girl.  The two stories were related to one another, but they also had many differences.  The assignment was to create a headdress representing or symbolizing a Cinderella story.  

          There are many different ways to make a headdress and I really liked how no one in the class had 2 of the same headdresses, in fact every student had a different idea.  From the very beginning I knew that I wanted to make my head dress out of different colors of tissue paper.  I really liked how we were able to use a variety of supplies and colors for our headdresses.  We were not limited to just a few options.  When we first started my eyes were immediately drawn to the bright yellow, green, and purple tissue paper.  These colors contrast one another and I thought that all three of them would look great together.  My plan was to make a crown that symbolizes Cinderella's crown and allow the jewels of the crown to be symbolic of the evil stepsisters vs. Cinderella.  The green diamond jewels symbolized the evil step sisters and the purple jewels symbolized Cinderella and all of her beauty. 
          This project was really fun and it would most definitely be beneficial in a 2nd Grade classroom.  There are many similar features in different fairy tales and I think that it would be fun if students made a headdress that had the similarities on the front and the differences on the back.  Making a Venn Diagram before hand would be very beneficial to them.   They will not only have fun making the headdress, but they will be learning how to find similarities and differences between 2 stories.

CA Standards:  

Grade 2:  Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #9

Compare and contrast two or more versions of 

the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by 

different authors or from different cultures. 

- As a class we really concentrated on this element of the standards and in fact, we made a Venn Diagram to help us distinguish the differences and similarities between the two Cinderella Stories.

Art: Week of February 15, 2011

          The presentation on VTS was very useful.  There are many different learning techniques that can come from discussions about art work.  Students are able to be creative and imaginative in what the art means to them.  One of the coolest things about art is that it can have multiple meanings and there doesn't have to be any right or wrong answers.  In school, students sometimes do not share their ideas or answers because they feel that they are wrong and they don't want to be embarrassed.  What is so neat about the this exercise is that every student feels that they are correct and that they can openly share their ideas in a positive environment!  This is important because the students are learning from each other and building ideas off of each other.  

          I chose this piece of art because I liked how it was very complex and how there was a lot going on.  I also do no know the reasoning behind the piece of art, so while my 2 friends were telling me what they thought about the art, both of their ideas sounded correct and I wasn't bias towards either way!  Both girls had a lot to say about the art and they really liked how colorful and detailed it was.  It was very intriguing to them.  At first they were both just pointing out different objects in the painting, but then one of them started to connect some of the objects and started to tell a story.  The other girl did not necessarily build off of the other's story, but she started making up one of her own stories about what she thought was going on in the painting.  After both of them had told their stories, they started to agree with one another on different things and they started to then began to build ideas off of one another and formed a new story.  By the end of the discussion, there were many different stories that they thought the piece of art was exemplifying.  While the girls were describing what they thought, I would repeat what they were saying, but at the same time I was making up my own story about it.  We all had different ideas, but they all worked for this one piece of art.  I really liked doing this assignment and my friends liked doing it as well.  They liked sharing their ideas and using their imagination. 

Art: Week of February 8, 2011

          Art, like Music and P.E. is a very important part of the classroom curriculum.  Art is important for many reasons and the main role of art in the classroom is to get the students to think creatively.  Being creative is a gift that all children have and it is up to the teacher to utilize this gift and to make sure that the student never loses their creative thinking.  There are two hemispheres in your brain, the right and left hemispheres, the right hemisphere tends to be the creative side, while the left hemisphere is more of the academic/math hemisphere.  When both parts of the brain are working together, that is when excellent thinking occurs.  Bringing art in the classroom is not only for the students to have fun, but it is a great and fun way to get them thinking in a different way.  Any subject; math, history, science, or english, can have art involved with it.  Having art incorporated into the lessons will not only make the lessons fun, but they will also learn so much from it.

          Kindergarten through fourth grade I was fortunate enough to attend a private elementary school.  At this school, we had art as a separate class.  In this class, we learned different concepts, such as the color wheel, painting, and drawing.  The class was structured, but at the same time, we had a lot of choice on what we wanted to do.  This was convenient because it allowed us to be creative and create a piece of art that we would be proud of.  I am very comfortable with art.  I am not the best artist, but I love to draw in my free time.  I have only had a few drawings/paintings that I would consider a masterpiece, but I learn from all of my drawings and paintings even if they are not the best.

          Art and learning go hand in hand.  Above I talked about the left and right hemispheres and how they play a role in ones thinking, now I am going to talk about the presentation that Morgan Appel presented and the relationship between art and learning.  It was pointed out that one does not need to be an artist to integrate art in the curriculum.  Along with this, art can be something as simple as coloring a flag, or as advanced as transforming the room into a jungle.  Integrating art into the curriculum has many benefits including new opportunities and challenges for the students.  Students learn and create schemes when they are interested in a topic and art is the perfect way to get students engaged and thinking in a way that will make them remember.  Students can learn just as much, if not more from doing art projects with lessons then they can from listening to a lecture.  There are many benefits to incorporating art in a daily lesson and it is important to have the child begin doing art in their earliest years of education because it plays a significant part in brain development.  Plus, art gets the students excited about learning and it is important to have students who want to learn, it will make their educational experience so much more meaningful.