synthesis

Field Review

I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot over the last couple weeks talking about my field placement, but I can’t stress enough how much I appreciate being placed with Dr. Gennie.  Things in life always happen for a reason and maybe working with Dr. Gennie was a necessary part my education.  Not every teacher has it easy, but I feel like Dr. G has it pretty rough.  I fully aware of the diversity among the Columbia Public School District, and I feel it was beneficial to see just how different schools can be ten blocks apart. 

Throughout my time with Dr. Gennie I was continually impressed with her efforts to have juicy lesson plans; lessons that enriched the students learning experience and tied in with their other subjects.  Even though the work produced might have been simple there was meaning behind it.  At Benton someone had asked that all the students make bowties to wear for the Christmas celebrations coming up next week.  Instead of cutting out 200 some odd paper bowties and having each class color them, Dr. G used whatever design motif the kids were working on at the time.  For students doing units on weaving the bowties have construction paper woven into the sides, the students doing mosaics their bowties have hundreds of tiny colored paper squares glued on then, and a dozen other varieties.  Each class produced different bowties relating to their other activities.

I find it overwhelming the amount of time and effort Dr. G puts into planning for six different grades levels and two schools.  Her years and level of experience makes seem so easy for her to juggle the constant change or at least that is what I have observed.  Even so she said several times over the last two months that she feels worn out.  Last semester she said all she ever did was yell at the kids because of the issues at Benton.  With the addition of a student teacher and my service hours Dr. Gennie was smiling again and for the first time in months she laughed about something in class.  No matter how fabulous a teacher you are her schedule takes a toll. 

One issue I have is really more with the school district, but even then I don’t think anything can be done to fix it.  Throughout the city schools have added trailers to provide more space for the growing population of Columbia.  The trailers are not a good solution.  The teachers who work in them are cut off from the rest of the school.  In the case of an art room, the trailers are just not equipped to hand clean up.  You can’t always have kids running back into the main building to use a bathroom.  Dr. G luges water out to them in gallon judges, but there are still plenty of complications which prevent a quick and efficient clean up.  As I said to start there is no simple solution because the district could never afford to do away with the trailers but Dr. G teachers in a trailer at both schools and has to limit what she teaches at times because of it.  Even if just some sort of plumbing could be done in the art trailers maybe it would provide a better learning experience of the students and teachers. 

Overall I wish I could have spent more time with Dr. G.  I have a better appreciation for the effort and work put into an art teacher's day.

Viewing and Responding

Probably every other student in our class said the same but the VTS was amazing.  I have taken 7 or 8 art history classes at MU and not one was as awesome as Mary’s VTS.  I have had one or two very good classes where I came away from it with a great appreciation and understanding of the art covered, but most were nothing more than Name, Date, and Artistic Classification, images memorized for the test and forgotten the next day.  I need to know more about contemporary artist so that when it is my turn to plan and execute a lesson I will be able to incorporate art current and past. 

Developing Art Curriculum

For my education this area needs the largest amount of growth.  I come from an artistic background so I have lots of experience with a variety of art mediums.  What I don’t have is any experience developing a curriculum.  I found the reading materials for the class most helpful.  If I am to be successful as an art teacher I need to build my own library of resources and good books are key.  Almost every class this semester has left me feeling overwhelmed.  The visit to Rockbridge high school was no different.  To have the opportunity to be a part of the MU Art Ed program is crucial for the teachers of tomorrow. Meeting some of the people responsible (Kathy Unrath to mention) is irreplaceable.  My own art education from high school pales in comparison to the work being done at Rockbridge.  The prospect of helping the next generation have a better experience that I did is part of why I’ve been pursuing a teaching degree for 8 years.  

Teaching Art

The tiger artist experience was so much fun.  I really enjoyed working all my classmates and professionals who helped.  It was really good to work with kids again.  I’ve been away from children for several years.  My job puts me in contact with the public when they are most often drunk and stupid, and it is emotionally draining.  Working with kids is rejuvenating.  It was also helpful to hear feedback on my interactions with the students.  The last thing I ever imagined was that my vocabulary was beyond what the students might have understood.  In the past teachers like Joe Johnson made me feel stupid when I didn’t understand a word or phrase he used.  He was not trying to so do he’s just a very educated man. The last thing I was to do is make anyone feel that way.

Peer Unit Review & Unit Self Evaluation

I think Lisa said it first but I have never worked so hard on a paper as I did for my unit plan.  It might be that I had more invested with the Unit plan.  I am passionate about teaching so I want to do the best work I can, and it’s not that I have never worked on a long paper before.  I don’t have the emotional connection to English Lit that I do with Art.  Now the Tiger Artist Lesson planning felt easy in comparison. My team worked really well together and before I realized it we were done.  The kids all seemed to understand and like the class so I think it was a success.

I really like have 17 separate Units that I can refer back to in the future.  I hope I get to someday teach them all. 

Journey Book

Journey Book  -  Esther McCune  

For my Journey Book I wanted to create a sketch of my life through my art work.  I started drawing at very young age and for some reason I've kept a lot of the work.  Over years I have bought more sketch books than I can count and only used the first half, then they get thrown in a box or a drawer never to be used again.  For the J.B. I think I finally finished one.  The image on the cover is a drawing of me at age 7 done by my first art teacher Amy Hiebert.

In the fall of 2008 I started my BFA at MU.  The color images in the J.B. are of my Post MU work and the drawings and transfers are Pre MU.  I find it interesting to see the growth and similarities in my work over the last 20 some years.  The work that I did in high school, I was so proud of at the time, is vastly different from what I am capable of now.   

 

my father and my roommate.  Pastel on Sandpaper

The first place I go when beginning any piece of art it what is happening in my life at the time.  Family is always at the forefront of my life.  I may not always have the time and money it takes to be with my family but everything I do in school aids in my journey to get back home.  I moved to Columbia in '06 to go to school. It has definitely taken longer than I thought it would but I'm still trying to move forward and someday I will get there.

The image of the bridge is a pen and ink drawing in did in Italy '07, at the end of a month long study abroad with the A&S Department.  Life changing.  I changed my major to Art six months later

I spent two and a half years working with this image.  Originally drawn out as a commemorative tattoo for my sister, brother-in-law, cousin and best friend who have all died in car crashes. 

Another series of images of family done with printmaking.  My roommate for three years moved to Missouri because I asked her to.  She had never even been outside New England before she moved.  Even though she is not blood family she is my sister and part of who I am today.

Since moving here she meet and married her husband

 Again my roommate provided the inspiration for my work by asking me to do pieces about Maine.  From there I found Edna St. Vincent Millay and with her poetry about the countryside New England I did this series of Illustrations.

 Illustration was another identity shaping course taken at MU.  With out Illustration I would never have discovered how much I love to work in Ink.  In high school I detested it.  Having to draw still life after still life in ink was the bane of my existence back then. 

the Car Crash was a self portrait done in ceramics which took a closer look at the two crashes that changed my life.

Color, I will never be able to get away from color

Fibers work of the last year.  I'm not sure I will ever be the same after taking fibers.

Some of the first self portraits I ever did of myself

 

the Journey Book is not finished, I have more to put in it throughout my Educational tutelage.

  

Side Note!  I am very sorry to have taken so long to get this info on the cite.  I lost my log in email, password, and account information back in September when I reformatted my hard drive I only found where I had written it down in November.    I am not a computer savvy person and without a computer that works at home it makes it much more complicated to figure out how everything works.  I HATE BLOGGING WITH A FIERY PASSION!  I have had to start and restart and re-restart working on this numerous times.  People usually think you're crazy when they see you yelling at the computer screen in a lab.  On the other hand it is right before finals so maybe no one would notice. 

Art Advocacy

Why Teach Art?  Better question why in the world would you not teach art?  Teaching Art takes more than a textbook and teacher explaining it.  I realize that is a generalization and simplification of the three R’s.  Each subject taught has its strengths and weaknesses, but Art takes money to fuel it and with Education getting cut in state and national budgests. art programs are taking a beating.  Art is every bit as important as Math or English.  Not every student is going to have natural talent or become world famous but then again not every student will become a mathematician or scientist.  Art education aids in every other aspect of learning.  The NAEP found that students receiving classroom arts instruction outperformed other students and that that instruction increased all of their artistic abilities, including the ability to create works of quality that communicated complex ideas and feelings - a fundamental communication skill in contemporary society.  Students who have had arts education have higher SAT scores than those without.  http://www.menc.org/information/advocate/sat.html  "Brain research is showing that the stimuli provided by the arts - pictures, song, movement, play acting -are essential for the young child to develop to the fullest potential. These activities are the "languages" of the child, the multiple ways in which he or she understands and interprets the world. Active use of these forms also paves the way for the child to use verbal language, to read and to write.”   http://www.brenhamchildrenschorus.org/1999benefits.htm.  And the list goes on.  There are so many people who learn in a visual manor and Cheryl Hamilton said it best:

            I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand

Our educational system  has been built on deep rooted traditions that are not easy to challenge let alone change, but the need for improvement has been staring us in the face for a long time.   Asia and Europe score higher in Mathmatics, Science, and Reading.  If we changed our approach to the educational system and gave Art as high an importance as M. S. and R. maybe the youth of our nation would outshine Europe or Asia. 

  -  Support funding of Access Missouri in the 2013 budget proposal. Keep informed about the efforts to protect need-based financial aid in Missouri through the Keep Me In College Coalition, send Governor Nixon a message.

DB #4 Assessment

In every kind of learning situation one party is teaching and one is learning.  When students are learning what art is and how it’s done, having your work assessed is just as important as the process of doing the work.  In my experience learning happens best when you get feedback on your progress.  Feedback comes in many forms but in essence it is any response or reaction to an action.  For students feedback is their grades, comments made while working on a project, praise given once completed or any response to their work.  Some of the different ways to assess are critiques, rubrics, multiple-choice test, performance-based evaluation, and portfolios.  In my experience portfolio-based evaluations and critiques with my peers and teachers have been the most beneficial.  Every student responds differently so the more ways you have to assess them the greater the students chance to show what and to what degree they have learned.  At the beginning of a new unit or art process it is very important to have the students demonstrate their knowledge base.  After the unit is completed comparing their finished pieces to the first trials can show the growth of each person’s ability no matter where they started out.  A successful learning experience is the change, expanding, in understanding and an ability of show said change.   It will look different for every student and teacher. 

You can push against a wall until you’re blue in the face but until the wall moves nothing has been accomplished.  Good or bad feedback is the proof of the wall moving for me.  When creating art the ability to step back and be evaluated on what has been done enables me to move forward and make better work.  Talking with my peers in a work-in-progress critique or one on one with my teacher has been the most helpful assessment for my work.  If you are never told how you’re doing, how will you know to move forward?  I can’t count the number of times I have received a grade for something and not understood why the grade was not better or worse.   

For my lesson planning rubric assessment will be used.  This way the students have a clear understanding of what is expected, and through demonstrations of techniques and exemplars the students should be able to actuate a successful project.

Big Idea Book - Second Chances

    For my B.I.B. I chose the first subject matter that came to mind and for my life that is a second chance.  When you feel like you've been walking backwards for 6 years a second chance to start over is a Godsend.

The book itself is handmade out of pulp painted hand pulled flex paper.  I love color in my artwork and a fresh start always feels bright and new.  Making paper has always seemed like a reinvention of something plain into the extraordinary.  With a second chance anyone can be extraordinary!

Amber Ward was the first of my classmates to contribute to my BIB and I have to say I was some what apprehensive about giving my book away.  I think mostly because the pages already had so much work put into them and I had a very clear idea of what was going to be in my book. 

I was quite pleased when I read Amber's pages because her take on my BI was so different from my own interpretation but just as serious a topic.  Her artistic style seems to fit right into the book.

Jooyoung was the second contributor to my book.  Her take on second chances was another complete reinterpretation of my idea but probably the best one.  I started thinking about becoming a  teacher in high school because I wanted to work with kids.  Truth be told I wanted to have kids but at 16 I didn't see that happening anytime soon. 

 I turned to education because of the one on one interaction with the next generation.  If I can help a child avoid mistakes I've made or help them as they make their own than what little wisdom I've gained in life can be put to good use.  

If hind-sight is 20/20 than presently I feel like I'm blind.  A Second Chance is the opportunity to use the knowledge gained from past mistakes to create a better future.  It's about using that 20/20 vision and not giving up regardless of how hard that path may be.  The opportunity to start fresh, take a step back and evaluate what and how you know something, someone, somewhere.   Christ's blood has washed away my sins.  Start Anew!  Christ paid the ultimate price to give each man, woman, and child the chance to try again.

If I had never lost my sister I would never know how precious life time can be.  If I had never been put in a wheelchair because of an accident I would never have learned to be humble and truly appreciate my mother's help.  If I had never failed a class I would never know how hard it is to get an A.  If I had never gotten a speeding ticket, I would never learn to slow down.  If I had never waited tables to pay my rent, I would never understand how much money is really worth.  If I had never hit my head walking down the stairs I would never learn to duck.

Time, Humility, Blood, Sweat, and Tears 

My life over the past 7 years has been a world-wind; disaster zone; and even sometimes a psychiatric ward would have been more enjoyable, but sometimes finding the meaning/image lost in a composition enables you to find purpose, peace, understanding.  The trials of life will only make you stronger.  Once your demons are defeated and the struggles over you can look back triumphant and say "I'm still standing, I'm still here", "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me".  Find the beauty in Life's Chaos and start each day Anew!!