Five things I want my students to learn/practice: 1) Self-Expression, to be unafraid to express thoughts, ideas, beliefs 2) Confidence, to be proud of themselves and their work 3) Inclusion/Acceptance, to include every student and to be accepting of every student 4) Building a community of art makers, to encourage, support, and help each other in the classroom 5) To take risks, to be unafraid of making mistakes Around 2025, I imagine myself as an art educator in an elementary school classroom. It's a big public school. I have my own classroom. There are multiple tables with four to a table, facing each other. There's a diverse group of students. It's never really a quiet classroom. We're always open to discussions and sharing of creative thoughts, ideas, and opinions. There's a large window looking outside of the building. I have made signs of encouraging messages scattered throughout the room. The room is messy of course but that makes it even better, especially while I have a variety of art materials organized throughout the room. Looking back on experiences I've had in previous art classes through the years, I remember small things that mostly involve the inspiring art educators that have guided my way to my intended career path. In elementary school, I remember making a sgraffito seahorse on rainbow paper that might've been the first thing I've ever been proud of making. I want to involve students in projects where they can find ways to learn new techniques to make beautiful things and to be proud and impressed with themselves like I was that day. In middle school, I remember that my art teacher would always go out of her way to encourage other students, compliment them or just say something to make someone's day. The first day I met her she said, "Oh Lacie! That's a lovely name, that's a name I'll see in lights one day." Her infectious personality did help most of the students create this sense of community, that we always spoke words of encouragement, and sometimes gave helpful suggestions, it made a more pleasant experience during the school day. She'd also ask us after every project, what grade we'd give ourselves. For some reason, I always said a B or C, because I didn't think I truly deserved the A, but she'd prove me wrong, showing me all of the things she was proud of when she viewed my work. She always had a way of boosting students' self-confidence. I knew that I wanted to be like that, I wanted to put a smile on my students' faces any chance I'd get to teach them. My very last high school art teacher was similar to the one I'd had in middle school but she had to deal with a time in my life that was particularly hard for me but she always encouraged me despite the doubts I'd had in myself while also pushing me to improve day to day. I always liked to stick to what I already knew but she'd show me different methods of doing things, she taught me not to be so stiff and worrisome when making something didn't turn out the way I originally planned. She taught me to take risks by encouraging me to think more creatively. She was also always someone students could go to, her classroom was a safe space with no judgments, and only kind words and that was everything to me at that time, that a teacher could go out of her way to provide a learning environment like that where students could feel free to express themselves and become better versions of themselves. Teaching in 2025: When I imagine teaching in the future and how technology in general and in the art world will progress, I know that I will have my students dabble with a lot of new techniques and trends but will also stick with and appreciate traditional art practices. I also would want the students to explore different mediums and media and integrate that into our class. For example, creative writing, film/documentation, digital art, etc. link to animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM2m4Rz_Eg8
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Title: Safe Space Main Concept: One of the most powerful things about art education is that experiencing art and making art can help heal. For many, an art classroom may feel like a safe space where students feel that they can truly be themselves without judgment or boundaries. It's a place where people can let anxieties of life go, take risks, and create something beautiful and interesting. The purpose of this encounter will be to illustrate the power of the art classroom being a safe space for students to express how they feel. Students/participants will have an experience, maybe unsettling or uncomfortable kind of like a haunted house but not nearly as extreme before entering the other half of the art house where it will be an open, safe space to view art and reflect on the experience and how they felt about viewing the work after. Process: 1) Students/participants will be be told through signs to go into the art house. 2) They may experience some discomfort at first as going through the house they may feel a sense of awkwardness or discomfort. 3) The next part of the walkway will be lighter, and more colorful, with beautiful artwork to look at before coming out. 4) Students/participants will then be asked to recall/reflect their thoughts and feelings throughout their experience through drawing, poem, phrase, etc. on the sheet or on a separate piece of paper. Materials: 1) big cardboard 2) dark sheet or fabric 3) light sheet or fabric 4) sheets of paper 5) writing utensils: pens, pencils, markers 6) some kind of light source
Art as therapy/Providing a safe space
-safe spaces -tent/fort -box idea involving -overcoming fear, discomfort -think haunted houses, art museums, escape rooms -recalling how they feel, or expressing how the space made them feel whether it's a drawing, poem, particular phrase, or something that reminded them, doesn't have to describe the particular experience or reason why they feel like they feel -http://www.bastienneschmidt.com/project.cfm?id=99 -https://www.artinmind.org/copy-of-shari-s-portfolio -https://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/ewic_ca10_s3paper2.pdf |
LACIE SOLTArchives
May 2019
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