Reflective Take on Secondary Education

During this past semester, I have had many new experiences that have affirmed that I want to work with high school students. I think that it is a challenge to work with high school students, but it is a challenge that is welcomed in my book. I think that working with high school students is a way to keep you on your toes, as while you will hold them accountable for work, they will also hold you accountable for yours. I was surprised how after a little push and effort the students opened up. I was surprised to have a student try to put me in my place infront of her peers, and I was surprised that I innately new how to handle the situation. You can only read about that so many times, but when you are put on the spot you don't necessarily respond the right way. I was surprised that my initial reaction was to stay calm and show her the evidence of what was being argued.
This past semester only leaves me anticipating the next time I get to work in a classroom. I enjoy it a great deal and know that I am on the right path for myself. I enjoyed sharing my excitement and enthusiasm for art, and am looking forward to making my career out of this.
As I go on with Art Education, I look forward to expanding the types of projects I will have my students explore. I believe in self expression through art as a way to keep students engaged and excited about what is happening in the world through art, and hope to incorporate some sort of projects in sculpture, clay, mixed media, drawing, painting, etc. I believe in completing the projects you assign ahead of time in order to understand what you are holding you students accountable for. By doing this I will also stay fresh when it comes to art work and I will be able to better help the students when problems arise. Speaking of creating artwork, several art teachers that I have talked to this semester encourage creating your own work within the classroom. I think that I will do this as a way to show students a little bit about me and that this is not just something that I care about from the hours of 8am to 5pm. This is something that I am truly passionate about and that is why I am going to a profession that art is such a dominant part of. I want my students to be able to understand that you can go into the world seeking a profession that doesn't feel like a job because of how much you love what it consists of.

Reflective Experience

If I could go back and redo the project that I worked on with my students, I would have given jobs to each of the students to complete. By doing this I would have been holding them accountable for a piece of work, which I don't think was something that was often done in the classroom on a regular basis. When I teach this in my own classroom, I will have each group of students comprise a list of what they want the project to include, and I will have a copy made for each of the members of the group, as well as a copy for myself. If any conflict should arise between the students about the direction of the project, we can simply just pull out the list and go over what isn't working from their initial jumping off point. Also, on this list the students will list what jobs are whose after the students themselves have decided this. When I do a project like this I will make it clear to students that in addition to me grading the over all project, I will also grade how each person worked. In addition to me grading each individual, I will have their peers grade how they worked within the group. This will factor into their final grade for the project. I think that by holding students accountable it ensures that each student will take part in the class and projects.
The lesson I worked on with students was a life size mural of a woman and child. It ended up being one panel because of time constraints and lack of manual labor, but was supposed to be one of three panels. During this project there was arguments over the racial portrayals of persons in the painting, who should be included and why, etc. I think that next time I will make sure that we pick subjects that represent an idea of the type of person we are trying to portray, instead of a specific individual.

Building a Community

I will build a community by establishing early on with my students that issues surrounding gangs, social or economic status, cliques, etc. are simply will not be a part of the art room. I will make sure that my students understand that when they walk through that door, any negative attitudes towards one another and each others choice in life style, friends, dress, and any other form of choice or just how a person lives, learns, etc. will not be attacked. Community will be built by completing projects that emphasize each individuals life and their self expression. I think that when students see eachothers work, it will leave them with a different impression of one another. I always found that I learned the most about my peers through critiques of their work. It is in this environment that the artist is encouraged to talk about thoughts, experiences, etc. that inspired them to create art. When you see an individual in this way, on a whole new level, it encourages you to open up your mind to possibilities. My art teacher in high school conducted our classroom in a way that encouraged community and I can't remember a time when I really felt left out or out of a group in the art room. There were not cliques, opinions on dress or any of these stress producing issues that you encounter in high school, because we understood that these we not to enter into the classroom unless we were going to use them for our personal creative purposes. I made friends from all different groups in the art room throughout my years in high school, and we didn't necessarily run in the same groups. I think that if you encourage your students to be open minded, accepting and respectful, and establish rules, the rest will take care of itself.

Classroom Management

During my field experience I've encountered many different approaches to classroom management. I think that most problems associated with classroom management can be attributed to the way teachers enforce rules within their classroom. If you do not follow through on rules, set limits, expectations, and hold students accountable for their work, then you will have an unorganized classroom. I believe that when students are set in an environment that is conducted in such a way, it is difficult for students to complete assignments.
I think that some problems that may be associated to classroom management in addition to the teacher's role within the classroom is what may be happening within the student's personal and social lives both inside and outside of school. When students are of the school age, schoolwork often times becomes second hand to other issues in their lives. When their friends and/or enemies may be in the classroom this may pose as a distraction from assignments and tasks at hand. As teachers we need to make sure that we are tuned into what is happening within the school environment. Also, this is one very important reason to get to know your students. We will be able to better control our classrooms if we have a better understanding of what issues are arising with our students.
Some strategies that I have observed to be successful within the classroom are holding your students accountable for assignments and to keep them motivated. If I knew that my peers would be walking around to look at my project half way through, I would want to make sure that it was well done and progressing, also, if I knew that I would have to present my work in a critique, I would want it to be completed to the best of my abilities. This can also be achieved by sitting down and talking to the student about why they are interested in certain projects, by creating assignments that relate to students lives, and by setting classroom rules that relate to students progress on assignments. For example, my high school art teacher used to require that we work on our projects in a mostly talk free environment. We could talk quietly amongst our neighbors while we were working, but could not be up roaming around unless it was to get new materials. She allowed us to listen to music as we worked, and this kept us focused on our work. We understood this to be a privilege so we obeyed her rules and didn't tempt her to have to take the music away.

ITM: Sourcing Inspiration/ Activation

The following are categories that apply to my creative process or that I would like to cultivate in my art practice:

Heart, mind, imagination, intuition, conscience, soul, intellect, memory, intelligence, thought spirit, vision, psyche, wit, feelings, recollections, instincts, ideals, opinions, sensitivities, anguish, rage, joy, glory, serenity, desire, misery, sorrow, bliss, kindness, humiliation, sympathy, ectasy, grief, distress, boredom, resentment, fury, panic, elation, fame, ethics, ambition, heartache, fear, meditation, dream, prayer, travel, trance, perception, frustration, observation, revelation, encouragement, splendor, activism, trauma, comfort, security, gradeur, beauty, excess, defiency, order, chaos

In terms of activating my inspiration, I apply the following categories:

Solo/collaborative, sustained/instantaneous, spontaneous/systematic, passionate/trial and error

ITM: Self-Identification

Family: daughter/sister/aunt/niece/granddaughter
State of health: Healthy
Education: High school degree from Camanche High, college degree in Art Education from the University of Iowa
Gender: Female
Sexual orientation: Straight
Race: Caucasion
Religious affiliation: Christian but open minded to persons of other beliefs
Economic status: Poor college student
Political belief: Liberal
Preferred leisure activity: Sketching, spending time with family and friends, running, being Auntie

Motivation

I think that as juniors and/or seniors in college, we can all relate to that feeling of being just about ready to run off somewhere new and different because we are ready to be done with what we have been working at for close to four years. The anticipation for that degree, the new job, and the ability to actually put to work what we have been practicing for so long is intoxicating. However, as much as you can be ready for that new change of pace, you can also grow extremely tired and impatient with the "old" pace that is required to get you to this new life. I sometimes find myself in this position. I love college dearly, and am going to be very upset when I do have to move away from good old Iowa City, but I am more than ready to be done with actual school work. I enjoy the hands on field experience classes, because they allow me to practice what I have been reading and take from what I have learned and evaluate my experiences. But the lectures that I am in because they are required, the endless pages I have to read because they are required for the exams......these require extra motivation in order to complete. What pushes me to complete assignments is that I know they are essential for my future, or in other words... teachers create assignments for our better well being. I know there is a method behind the maddness. This does keep me motivated along with experiences I have had with the outcomes of not following through when I wasn't motivated. These experiences left me less than satisfied and feeling as though I didn't have control. Which happens to be a feeling that I dispise greatly. There in lies my motivation: my future and having control over my future.
I think that I will be able to relate to my students because I know that most if them are feeling the same way. They feel grown up, they think they are adults, and yet they do not see the method behind the maddness. We have all felt this same way before. Senioritis....that may last from freshman year to senior year in high school. I think that as teachers we need to keep our students motivated by relating the material we are teaching to their lives. If we can center projects that we assign around a way that will allow them to display their personal experiences, thoughts, opinions, plans for the future, etc. we will have a better chance of motivating them, and especially important, getting to know them on a better level. What better way to kill two birds with one stone. The two very most important things to us as teachers: to motivate our students to work towards their future and discover themselves and to get to know them all the while doing this.One student I think of in relation to this blog is a young man I worked with at the high school. He is extremely talented in art, and seems to be a level headed and an intelligent person. I never had trouble talking to him about art projects and motivation. He seemed to always be busy and invested in his work both in and out of class. We were speaking the other day about his future plans after high school. I was asking him if he had thought about any colleges yet, and if he would want to carry on with art as the basis for his future career, or if he had any other ambitions for this. He responded that he did not really know if he should even look into colleges because of money and other factors. He asked me, Where is this money supposed to come from? What if I don't finish? What am I going to do? He seemed to be overwhelmed about this, so I responded honestly and talked to him about my own experiences in relation to this, and I responded to him that you finish because it is important. You finish because you need that college degree to get a job anymore. I spoke with him about possible careers involving art, and ones that don't, and also about speaking with his counselor to start looking into colleges. I think that it will be our jobs to not only inspire motivation in terms of art, but also in our students lives and futures, if they are willing to open up to us in this way.

Field Experience

My initial expectations for the field experience this semester were varied. I was nervous, curious, excited.... wanting to be confident because of what I have been taught in college thus far about being an art teacher. What I have experienced thus far in our field experience cannot be taught by simply studying a book. I have worked with students who want to challenge me as a part of getting to know me. I have worked with students who exceeded my expectations beyond belief. I have worked with students who have multiple layers to their personality, who are much different than they appear on the surface. Some students are soft spoken, some are out spoken. Some are making plans for their futures, and some have no idea what tomorrow is going to hold for them.
One student that I encountered and worked closely with is a young woman who is about to graduate. She has a mature and positive outlook on life, and though she is friends with many different personalities, seems to keep everyone in line in a quiet, soft spoken way. She often tells me of her plans for after high school. She seems to come from a supportive family, and is in a supportive relationship with a young man. Her opinions of her peers and her future plans are all positive and level headed. When I speak with her, I feel like I am speaking with someone my age, not years younger than I. I feel like I can relate to her because she seems to be looking over her friends, and seems to be in control of her life yet observing the world around her closely, but at the same time seperately. I feel that I can relate to this because this is how I felt during high school and often feel that way now. I have always been told that I come off as the motherly figure among my friends, and I have always planned for what is to come next in my life. I, like her, need to have a plan for what is to come next. I think that I can learn a lot from her, however. She always seems to have a calm and collected outlook on what is unknown and whatever may be happening at the time, whereas I can get worked up and worried about these things. I think that as teachers we should not limit our expectations to what we will teach our students, but should be open to what our students may teach us both inside and outside the realm of our subject matter.

Advocates for the Arts: Keeping the Creativity Alive in Our Communitites

I think that the best way to be an advocate for the arts in your school district is to not limit the creation of art to only your art classroom. When I was in high school, my art teacher had us involved in creating art for all sorts of events. Students would partake in the designing of Homecoming buttons, signs, shirts, etc. We would help to create floats for the parades, and everyone of the students became involved in this. We had a competition between the grades for the most creative float, though all in good fun. The entire community was invited to come and watch our parade and other community members were also involved in this event. Another way to be an advocate for the arts is to cue into community events or important historical events that may have some sort of dedication services to it. For example, in my hometown we had a special event that had to do with businesses from years and years ago that helped get the town on its feet. Years from then we were holding dedication services for important moments like such in honor of our town. Fellow peers of mine and I worked on projects for the dedication. This also got the entire community involved and our artwork was seen as a very important key component to the dedication.
If you approach other advocates in your school district (of sports, theatre, etc.) with an open mind and a willingness to work with them, then you will have a better chance of your efforts as an art advocate to be recognized and appreciated in a respectful and meaningful manner. If you balance your efforts in this way then you will be able to maintain the "flow" within your district. Your love and advocacy for the arts is more likely to be taken seriously if you are willing to work in this manner, just as with anything else. If you chose to do the opposite, then you could be doing more harm to your advocacy than good.

Collaborative Art Making

I think that it is important to fit at least one collaborative art project into your curriculum. While I do think that it is important for students to work on their own pieces most of the time (as an outlet for personal self expression), I do think that it is valuable for students to learn how to work alongside their peers artistically. Collaborative artwork allows students to share personal views and artistic input, and in turn to see how their peers perceive an artistic task. When students work together they may learn from one another in terms of how to solve a creative problem encountered while working, and also to possibly pick up different styles other than their own. Service-learning projects can be worked into curriculum by working with the community to learn about what sorts of events are going on. From there you can discuss with your students what they feel as a class they should do to contribute.

An experience I've had with collaborative art making comes from the work we are currently doing with the local high school students. What I have learned from this experience is that when I incorporate a collaborative project into my own classroom, I will need to find a way to hold the students accountable for the work they are doing....or are deciding not to do. At this time, I am not in charge of grading of any sorts, so I really do not have a way to motivate them in those terms. But what I have learned from this collaborative experience is this: when you let students decide on a subject matter that motivates them, you really get to see and hear their personal views of the world as they know it. And students who are truly motivated by the subject matter that they chose to create a work of art about feel strongly about these views and opinions they hold. I am working closely with a young woman who came in on the middle of a collaborative piece and now is my main artist working on the project with me, and when we speak about the content of the piece, she opens up and allows me to be apart of her world. And when students invite you into their world, you better listen, because they have some very intriguing and meaningful things to share. I think that art may be one of the only subjects that really allow teachers to connect with their students on a different level in this way. We should value the opportunities we are going to be given as teachers to connect with our students, even if only a handful of them are willing to open up.

Experience/Views on Teaching Students with Disabilities

During my practicum experience, I worked among students ranging in age from 6-12 years of age. One student in particular that I enjoyed working with was a boy in the 5th grade. He took a bit more encouragement to get working than the rest, and his attention was hard to keep at times. I needed to offer him constant reassurement that he was completing his tasks correctly and on top of this, needed to make sure that his peers were not making fun of his disability. He often made remarks that led me to believe that he thought of himself as a nuisance to work with. This was completely the opposite of the truth. I greatly enjoyed working with him. He did require more attention, but when he made remarks to me about being a nuisance, it made me realize that teachers need to have all the patience in the world with their students. The reality is that students are not all going to be "cookie cutter", nor would we want them to be. Each child requires some sort of different style of teaching, some extra attention in different content areas, some extra reassuring. This is our job. Students with disabilities should not be thought of as any different. Just as the rest of their peers, they may require a different style of teaching. In no way should a student with a disability be made to think of as a nuisance, nor should their disability be pin pointed as an outcast from how their fellow peers learn or work to complete tasks.

The artist that I am featuring in my blog is Thomas Nelson. He is featured on the National Arts and Disabilities Center website. He has ALS, but has adapted a way to create art by using digital art. My blog isn't letting me add the image that I'd hoped to display, but the piece is called The True Cost of War.

IITM: Creation of My Artistic Self

"I have created myself entirely:
A childhood, a personality, longings, dreams and memories,
All in order to enable me to tell them."

When I was in high school I read this quote as I was looking for inspiration for an art project. This quote has stuck with me over the years and I think that this applies to everyone, but artists especially. As I've talked about before in my blog, I feel very strongly that art is a great outlet to express yourself. I feel that when I create art, really personal and meaningful art, it has my heart put into it. Most of the art that I create has to do with things I have been through so far in my life. I have created an artistic self by practicing techniques, modifying and changing how these techniques work for me, and have, slowly over time, allowed myself to create pieces that tell it all for me. In other words, relatively speaking, I wear my thoughts and emotions on my sleeve when I am making art.

Balance of Cultural Icons and Meaningful Artwork

As an artist, it is important to know the works of cultural icons, to understand the history of art before us and to learn about art that is being created in the now. I know that the type of environment I wish to have in my classroom is one of appreciation for all kinds of art. I want to display works of cultural icons during certain lessons and have my students learn about the techniques that were used to create the pieces, and I want to discuss with my students what makes a great work of art. At all times I want to have work that my students have created and works of my own displayed in the classroom. I think that if we foster an environment that is geared towards appreciation of all art then it will be easier for us to get our students to create their own meaningful artwork.
In one of my art history lectures, my professor told us that Michelangelo and artists of his time believed that in order to become great, you had to work from the great works of art of those who preceded you. In other words, they literally would copy and recreate works of art. From there, in order to be a great artist, you needed to then create your own style, your own artistic self... and they did. I'm not saying that I am going to encourage students to copy cultural icons' works of art, but I am going to incorporate their pieces into my lessons and have discussions with my students about what they feel makes a "great" work. What I hope to teach my students is that the art created by these cultural icons are great because they are meaningful. I hope to get them in the state of mind to express themselves through their artwork, to deliver a message....whether it be only for themselves or for an audience.
Artwork can be a great outlet for anyone. It allows you to express things that you may not be able to put into words, and I think that for high school students especially, this can be extremely stress relieving. The work created by our students will tell us a lot about them. Artwork can be full of symbolism and personal meaning, and they may include much of their personal life and views into their artwork. The work that our students create may allow us to see how they perceive the world.
If a student wanted to incorporate images that are culturally significant but deemed inapropriate, I would sit down with them privately and explain that in when they are outside of school, they are free to create works of art that incorporate these images, but within the walls of my artroom they must follow school guidelines and my guidelines (no discriminating against race, sexualy orientation, etc).

The Art Room: A Safe Haven

I think that we can all attest to the fact that there truly are no limits when it comes to art, everything is accepted and as artists we all seem to have open minds. Hopefully we all carry this ability outside the realm of art, and into the world surrounding us as we encounter different individuals in our lives and build relationships, especially those with our students. As we become teachers, we should encourage our students to be open minded in all areas.

As we begin to handle issues pertaining to discrimination, we should not only have ourselves on guard for racial slurs, but should also watch for discrimination against persons with different sexual orientations. If I was approached by a student who "came out" to me I would be open to them and welcome them if they need someone to talk to. I am not opposed to anyone with a different sexuality than I, so I don't feel that I would have a hard time talking to someone who is beginning to be open about this part of their lives. I would sit down with the student and ask them if they have spoken to their friends or family about it yet, and ask them how they plan to approach the subject when they do. I hope to be able to help the student talk through the difficulties they may encounter as they begin this process.

I plan to make my art room a safe place for all students by being intolerant of any language pertaining to anyone's race or personal choices. While reading Chapter 7 in Adolescents At School, I found the following passage interesting and disturbing, and this pertains to our roles as teachers and the examples we set in our classrooms: "One of the most damaging way some school staff contribute to the creation of identity-detrimental environments for LGBT students is their failure to respond to hostile language and harassment. Forty percent of GLSEN's survey respondents indicated that the faculty and staff at their schools never intervene when they hear students use anti-LGBT language, and another 43 percent said their teacheers intervene only 'some of the time.' " Students should not feel threatened and discriminated against when they come to school, it is important that they feel safe, we are working in the environment that is the basis for their future and it is our job as teachers to make sure that all of our students feel safe in the school environment. An environment full of discrimination and threats is detrimental to the personal and academic growth of students.

ITM: Arnaldo Morales

Assignment: Tinguely staged event for spectators to behold. Morales is not content with mere observation. He demands participation. Sometimes he allows the audience to decide if they want to interact with his works; sometimes their proximity compels participation. Find examples of specific artworks by Tinguely, Morales, or other artists that exemplify the audience's relationships with: a static, harmless art object, an active, harmless art object, and active, dangerous art object, an art object that invites participation, an art object that imposes participation.

I was intrigued by the work that Arnaldo Morales has created, and was interested to see what other types of work were out that were meant to engage the audience with the artwork. When I began researching artists who exemplified a relationship between the audience and their artwork, I found an artist who's artwork intrigued me. Paul Weidmer works with fire and iron as the basis for most of his project. He does sculptures that are both interactive and non interactive. I was most interested in the pieces I will display below that incorporate fire and iron together. I feel that these pieces are really engaging and interesting. They show how his mind is working and he executes his projects well.

ITM Skip Schukmann and Impermanence

Assignment: Provide an example of another artist who accepts impermanence, and explain if that artist was inspired by the natural environment or by some other phenomenon.

After reading the text over Skip Schukmann's work with the natural environment and impermanence, I began looking at other artist's work relating to impermanence. I think that this is an interesting way to work. I found work by Maria Velasco titled "Embracing Impermanence". This is a performance piece in which for a period of two weeks she will stencil words on the wall and erase them. The rubber remains from the eraser become the raw material which she then uses as her medium to create new stencils. The cyle repeats itself. I find this interesting because as an artist I become attatched to my work, and this is a different way of looking at the way in which you create a piece of work. To embrace impermanence seems to be a way of embracing whatever happens to a work of art and going with it, allowing it to take a new course and not necessarily being ruined. As stated in the text about Skip Schukmann's art, a viewer bumped an edge of his piece and it fell and he just created a new piece based off of the parts that had fallen. He did not consider that piece ruined, it just simply began to take a new course.

Discrimination

A time that I recall when I was discriminated against stems all the way back to middle school. I was the first person in my fifth grade class to get braces, and everyone noticed the moment I arrived at school. Since I was the first person to don this new contraption (or at least new to my peers and I) I felt awkward, vulnerable, and nervous to see my peers. And also let me add that in addition to the metal monstrosity in my mouth, I also at four rubber bands binding my mouth shut, as well as unflattering glasses..... I won't even get into the large plastic retanater that was cemented into my mouth a year later leaving me with a lysp for six months. At any rate, my friends teased me about it because they didn't yet have any of these things, and I was the first to, ergo, the target.

A time that I discriminated against someone was during my high school years. We received a new group of transfers from the next town over that were rumored to be drug dealers because of the area they came from. The school that they had been attending was rougher and these transfer students did have some drug dealers as their peers, but not all of these students were fitting the stereotype everyone seemed to be giving them. As I got to know some of these transfer students, I found out that they had requested to be transferred because of the school they were attending, some of them wanted to go back to their friends, etc.....but all of these students were very bright and polite individuals. The more and more my peers got to know these students the more we learned about them and I remember being angry at myself for assuming what someone would be like based on what I had heard.

I think that if we incorporate opportunities that allow our students to get to know one another, we will be combating discrimination. If we as teachers stop discrimination the moment we hear or see it beginning, we will be helping our students. Also, as teachers, we need to be careful to not discrimintae or judge students prematurely based on what we think we know based on what students look like, what rumors we've heard about them, or what experiences other teachers have had with students.

Drawing: Teaching Techniques

After reading the assignment for this week, I thought back to what techniques my drawing teachers have stressed to my peers and I over this past years, and what still sticks with me when I am working on a drawing. When I read the assigned reading in From Ordinary to Extraordinary, I picked out a few key components that agree with what was emphasized by my instructors.

To start off with, I think that it is important to focus on an area of an object rather than taking on the entire object at once. This can be extremely disheartening and a heavy load to take on when you are trying to render an object. I remember when I was in high school and was given a still life to draw from, I thought that I needed to include the entire object, but what I learned to do was to find an area that I found most interesting and I then dedicated my attention to that. As a result, I was more satisfied with my work. I eventually learned to handle entire objects, but I think that it is also important to teach students to draw from an interesting view point, which may not consist of this entire object. This leads me to my next point. I feel that it is important to show your students the importance of what it can do for a drawing when it touches all sides of the paper, has weight, as in a foundation so objects do not appear to be floating, and when the focal point is not directly in the center of the paper.

I hope to be able to teach my students to realistically render their objects, but also teach them the beauty of expressive drawing. I feel that too often students mark themselves as unable to draw because they feel that they cannot create a perfectly realistic drawing. If they are introduced to different approaches to drawing, different techniques and what each can do for the mood of the piece, etc. then possibly more students would be willing to jump in and make art free of preconceived expectations of what their artwork "should" look like. Art is uninhibited and an outlet for self expression and thats how students should feel when they are making their own work. This being said, I do feel it is important that students learn the techniques we all have that allow us to create realistic pieces. One of the most important techniques I feel that I will teach my students is shading. This can bring a piece to life and my art instructors have shown me that that is the next step to be taken to create a realistic piece.

My favorite sketch is created by M.C. Escher. I feel that the way that he shows the different levels of sketch within one piece is a perfect example to show students when teaching them the technique of shading.

Leading Class As An Artist and A Teacher

I believe that everyone learns differently, in any subject. For instance, I have found that in drawing, it was beneficial for me to see my instructor do an example piece of whatever exercise we were doing for the day. After I would see an example, I could practice and work on what needed to be improved. However, in my oil painting class, I valued my instructors style of teaching. We were allowed to develop our own approach to oil painting, were allowed to choose projects based on what inspired us, and just her enthusiasm alone for our freedom, our art, our inspirations was a lesson that I hope to carry into my classroom. What I am saying is that, when I am teaching a lesson to my students I want to remember not as a teacher, but as an artist, that I learn different techniques in different ways and need to allow my students the opportunity to do the same. Artists have the desire to want to practice with a medium that inspires them....to keep creating pieces based on a theme or subject that inspires them....to keep improving on what they have already accomplished. Just as an artist would not say,"Well, that painting went well, glad I don't have to ever paint again.", as a teacher you are not going to say, "Well that lesson went well/ didn't go well, I guess I'm done now." As a teacher, you are going to want your students to succeed, to enjoy their time in your classroom, to connect with a piece they have created, a medium that they enjoy. You will not simply give up after one shot at it. You will continue to work on your methods of teaching, to perfect how you connect and inspire your students, etc. I will incorporate my artwork into my teaching by sharing with them what inspires me. I think that sometimes that can be a very personal thing. Questions arise about what exactly inspired you, what you felt while you created a certain piece, etc. And if you can share that with your students it allows them to be able to invest that sort of personal connection into their own art, and hopefully be able to share it with you.

High School Perceptions

I think that when I was in high school, I was oblivious at the time to the amount that my teachers did for my peers and I. I was grateful and respectful to my teachers and had built strong relationships with some of them over my four years. But it was not until I began practicing to become a teacher, that I fully realized all of the things they had to endure....patience with our attitudes, our desire to get anywhere but Camanche High, our tardiness, etc. I went to school with a good group of kids...they all had potential and the motivation to pursue a life after high school, but did not always want to actually be IN school. I remember one of my friends referring to high school as a four year prison sentence. I think that most high school students feel that they are ready to be done, ready to go on to the next step, ready for freedom....and as stated perfectly by one of the students I will be working with this semester, "High school students think of themselves as adults already." This is true, I remember thinking that I wanted to get a move on with it all, didn't want to be trapped in high school. Now I realize that I had a lot of growing up left to do, but this is what is to be expected when working with high school students, or at least what I expect. I was fortunate, however, to have a great group of teachers who made our classes enjoyable, inspired us for what was to come after high school. I hope that I am able to inspire the same sort of emotions for my students. I hope that they will be able to enjoy their time in high school, or at least find solace in the art room. I am excited to learn as much from my students as I hope to teach them, and I look forward to find out what inspires them and to create lessons that they will enjoy.

Introduction

Hello,

My name is Alison. I am from Camanche, Iowa, and am a senior at the University of Iowa. I originally came to U of I wanted to pursue a career in nursing. I realized early on, however, that a degree in Art Education was the right choice for me. I have enjoyed my experiences thus far in the program and am excited to start working with the students this semester.