Magic in Education?

The article discussed the typical way in which an art class is structured and in my experience this structure seems to hold true. Elementary art teachers seem to struggle with controlling the classroom, keeping kids interested, following the curriculum and having the students produce good quality art work. As a result of this list the approach and general structure of lesions and the lesson topics themselves seem to be the same. This may produce nice neat and well structured art works but it causes the work to look similar from student to student and classroom to classroom. In my observation hours I have seen elementary teachers fall victim to this despite being some of the best teachers who are the most connected to their students.

I'm not sure if I follow the analogy of magic that is carried throughout the entire article but I do follow the idea that even though it appears that teachers are teaching in a way that allows for creativity it is all an illusion. This was my experience throughout elementary school; the class was given a lesion and allowed to create their own version however by following along with the teacher’s instructions all the art ended up looking the same. The older I got however, my classes did seem to become more student centered and I was able to pursue and expand upon my artistic interests in relation to the overall lesson topic or material.

This article has inspired a laundry list of ideas that I would love to implement in my future classroom. It seems to me that a successful classroom falls somewhere in the balance of letting the student drive and inspire themselves and each other and giving them the tool and knowledge to be able to do so. I do worry however that in allowing students to work in different mediums on different projects at the same time will result in me as a teacher not being able to budget the time each student needs during any given class period.

I think this video from a student’s perspective really brings up a lot of good points and reflects what is being taught in this article. A student centered classroom where students are asked to engage in mastery learning rather than memorization and replication seems to be the future of progressive education in our schools. This is applicable to schools in general and should not be limited to just art classrooms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K96c-TGnSf4&list=PL0134792CEB4EF46D

Dialogue Between Imagination and Formal Education

After ages of producing replicas of famous artwork in class, we are now in the epoch of student-produced curricula. Are students—young and uninhibited—really more qualified to make decisions about their own educations than their teachers? The burning question is beginning to engulf classrooms across the country, and I can’t help but be a critic.

In the past, classrooms were dictated around the idea that the teacher was right and the children were minds to be molded through the intellect of their professor. In a much more progressive age, the student body is gaining more power as far as their education in art. While creativity is of more value than anything else in the art classroom, without traditional education first, It’s difficult for children to understand the processes of how to use certain materials, how to compare styles of different artists, even how to critique each other which is critical in art education. Without constructive criticism, how are students motivated to improve, to experiment, to search for innovation?

I believe that letting students run free within the confines of instructions for a project is the best way for them to learn without walking all over their teacher. Children have an inherent love of the brainchildren of their own imaginations. That much will be consistent with class after class of kids. Their understanding of art principles, however, will never be able to dialogue with this sense of imagination unless they begin learning it at a young age.

Throughout school, the curricula always forced you to take prerequisite art classes, which were often dry and instructive, only so you could reach the dynamic higher-level courses. In these courses, there was little instruction and students were set free to create essentially anything they wanted while following the broad guidelines of assignments. I dreaded the prerequisites at the time I was in them, but in retrospect, they benefited me in ways I can’t even explain, and provided me with skills I constantly use as an art student.  You can bend the rules once you learn them—pushing boundaries is the basis for successful works of art—but you can’t utilize them if you have no idea they exist. 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/189291990560798446/

Kids take the reigns

To many present teachers, the idea of letting children take the reigns of the class controlling every project or lesson for the year may sound a bit daunting and scary! To be honest, I would probably fall under the same fear. How could I let my class dictate the learning that's going on? How could I sit back and trust the class to make adequate progress and to grasp the main concepts that we as teacher's have responsibility covering? The thought of not meeting specific standards imposed by local, state, and national models is kind of scary!

There has to be a median here. The author of this article, Nan E. Hathaway, did not intend for art teachers to decide to sit back, drink coffee and take naps. No! Hathaway, who is a middle school art teacher in Vermont, was describing a median where students take the lead and teachers facilitate learning. She believes that student-directed learning is the key to the art classroom. The art room has to turn into a studio where students are considered artists with authentic purpose. The article says, "students must first 'be given the opportunity to think like artists,'" (Hathaway, p. 4). Students take the reigns and teachers are there every step of the way, supporting students in their decision making processes. How can students learn the values of higher order thinking, when a teacher is constantly holding their hand? I think teachers who are able to

master the student-directed classroom are geniuses, and I bet it takes a lot of practice and experience!

I found this picture (to the left) on Pinterest a while ago, and I believe that it is important for all people to be aware of. These are all valuable aspects of art in schools. I believe that every child who takes a student-directed art class will be able to successfully say they have achieved every single one of these values. As art teachers, we need to encourage group collaboration, dialogue, exploring, trying and possibly failing, and appreciating various points of view, to name a few. These expectations can only be learned on your own. Sure, teachers can guide students in the right direction, but I think that students can only excel in art when they are given the reigns to explore and learn on their own.

As I was looking around on the internet, I came upon a high school's art history project that really stood out to me in terms of student-directed learning. Even though it highlights a high school age level, I believe the project would work (with  modifications) for any many ages. The students created a music video and in that video the students designed and recreated famous pieces of art in which they, the students, were the main characters. This example of student-directed learning shows how the students put forth the passion and motivation to create these recognizable pieces of the art world. Allowing students to take the lead in learning experiences like this, will quite possibly result in more learning than initially supposed. From watching the video, I think the students enjoyed the activity as well.

http://apexhsart.blogspot.com/search/label/70top14

Art Classes as Directed by Children

While the concept of an art class that fully allows children to plan and decide their own art projects sounds promising and agreeable, I think there are many issues that we must consider. I remember back in high school, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Like many of my classmates, we were accustomed to receiving lessons, and learning how to do certain things through the teacher's instruction. I think the term "Magic Trick" may be harsh, because I feel that I received a great learning experience from my teacher's, even though they had "directed" our course of action. There is a certain discord in the classroom if one child wants to learn clay sculpting, another ceramics, and another wanting to learn printmaking. All of these projects require teacher assistance and ample time in order to attain the proper skills to execute. In my opinion, it is more beneficial to the class if the teacher educates them collectively, so that the students may help one another and learn in a timely and orderly manner. 

We could also say math teachers are also manipulative. Why do we have to learn calculus or trigonometry? Unless we want a career requiring higher leveled math skills, why are we taught these concepts that are forgotten in later stages of life? Although idealistically, we could live in a world where each child is taught exactly what they want to learn, it is hard to specifically meet the needs of each and every child, especially when there are so many students compared to teachers.

 I believe that the notion of the student choosing his or her medium of art to practice will allow for greater preparation for the future. However, there has to be a happy medium between structure and creativity. I think a good plan is to allow the students to suggest a variety of projects that they have interest in, while suggesting some new ideas for the students to learn. I am still only a student, so I don't know if my opinion is the best option. However, because I am a student, I know that there are a lot of areas that I am unfamiliar with and that I would not have thought up on my own, and having a teacher to guide me through new forms of art and ideas is extremely helpful.

I had learned to make linoleum block prints, stipple, and paper sculpting based on teacher instruction. She taught us the correct method to execute our projects, while still sticking to her lesson plan and also allowing us the creative freedom to come up with our own ideas pertaining to the particular project.

Teaching Without the Magic Show

Smoke and Mirrors: Art Teacher as Magician

Hathaway, Nan E. Art Education66.3 (May 2013): 9-15

 

I found this article to be very insightful. As an art education major, I often contemplate how I will go about successfully teaching a class. I feel that teaching the subject of art is in a completely different realm than any other subject. There is no simple definition of the right or wrong way to do art. For this reason I often wonder what my role as an art teacher will be.

The Smoke and Mirrors: Art Teacher as Magician article by Hathaway gave some very interesting points on the way to view a classroom through the eyes of an art teacher. The article helped me realize that being an art teacher is less about creating specific lessons, selected and thoroughly planned out by the teacher, and more about helping the children discover their own creativity. Helping them turn their creativity, their own thoughts and ideas, into a form of art.

The article kept reiterating that the purpose of art education is to cultivate the mind. Allow the students to find themselves, discover their interests, and expand on that. This article helped me to realize that my job as a teacher would not be to simply supply them with an idea, but merely give them the resources needed to create their own vision, and help them along with that process. As a teacher I hope that I can have the ability to supply my students with the knowledge and materials they need to carry out and complete their own creative process. 

When the instruction of the art teacher is the only thing behind the idea of a creation, then the students often view, not themselves, but the teacher as the only artist within the classroom. In allowing the student freedom to create their own work from their ideas alone, the students will gain pride when completing a piece of art. This pride, accumulated from their realization that they were the sole creators, will give them the self-assurance to see themselves as artists.

Building Forts Response

This article reminded me deeply of my childhood self. I have vivid memories of entire school years of recess periods spend on the fringes of our playground on our muddy hillside digging into the craggy roots at the bases of trees making fairy houses, or constructing dolls out of mud with snail shells for eyes and grass for hair. Even building forts was something we would occasionally work on or contemplate, but because I was usually working with only one or two friends we would usually focus on smaller more detailed projects.

The second project of mazes also reminds me of things I have done on school time, to help me concentrate better. Rufo muses, “I also began to wonder if drawing in the margins was a way in which some students processed information and if certain students were able to better concentrate while ‘physically moving or doodling’.” I would agree with this notion in a heartbeat, as I spent the better part of my 10^th grade year, as well as various weeks even as early as elementary or middle school making paper cranes. I learned how to do this as part of a unit on Japan in 3^rd grade, when we also read the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. I took on the task myself and indeed did complete 1,000 tiny paper cranes my sophomore year of high school. I am sure I annoyed my teachers to no end, but the size of paper I used was just bigger than my thumbnail, so if I folded with my hands just under the desk (I didn’t really need to look at what I was doing, I had the steps memorized not just visually but also physically) I wouldn’t disrupt the classroom. In the weeks while working on this, I discovered my ability to concentrate on the lecture material (as most of my classes were lecture by that point) was much greater, because with this small task occupying part of my mind, I couldn’t daydream and had to actually listen to the material that was being presented.

The doodling reminded my vividly of youtube channel host Vihart- who is educated in both mathematics and music and makes wonderful videos pertaining to these and other topics. This video is particularly relevant to the idea of drawing fractals in math class, and this one has much visually similar to the maze concept.