Making art history fun?

So while doing my observations my mentor teacher had an AP art history class. Now I know this is going to sound terrible but I found myself dozing off during class, I tried my hardest not to, but i'd feel my eye lids get heavy and that feeling to just lay my head down while i took notes and "rest my eyes". I probably shouldn't be admitting this to the public, but it happened. At the end of the class I'd scold myself but wonder... how could this have been different? How could he have created an energy, organization and knowledge based on fun within this curriculum and class. I was comparing his class and my art history class with Pro. Kerner and noticed that both of them lack the idea of student participation. Kerner though has much interest in her subject and even though it's very lecture based, her passion on the subject catches your interest, as well as her story telling techniques, and for me it's almost trying to find a question she doesn't have the answer for, since she seems to know everything on this topic.

Being an art ed student who doesn't really enjoy art history, but definitely understands it's importance and place within an art class, I should prepare myself for having an opportunity to teach a class like this. If this does ever happened I definitely want to attach my energy and enthusiasm to the subject, as well as incorporate not only information based lessons, but combining all aspects of art within the subject, performance, exhibition, carreer options within the art world, and process/technique. With all of that in mind I did some research on how other teachers have tried to make art history a fun topic to learn about. Some of their responses and experiments seem like they could really be effective.

One of the reasons I believe they could be effective would be the idea of incorporating play within the lesson. This is something that all my professors have talked about as a tool for educating. One of the techniques I read about was having the students act out famous paintings, or hold "un-birthday parties" for artists by researching the artists, creating or finding 5 objects that could represent that artist, wrapping the gifts up with hand-made wrapping paper depicting the style the artist used and then as a class have a tea party and have the student who did the research, unwrap the gifts and explain the research they did through the character-related gifts. This to me sounds like it could incorporate all the aspects of what I want to involve in my lessons for art history; there would be research, public speaking/ performing, art making and the idea of exhibiting your knowledge as well as your skill. I also believe having them participate in a physical and cognitive manner will really create a energy within the classroom that would be almost considered out of the norm for an art history class.

Another fun way I think you could execute an art class would be by having the students create art related to the art history period, acting out being the artists, or acting out a specific painting, or putting on your own museum gallery; having the students find art, print it out, you could even teach matting teachniques, and then have them create the information cards under the painting, afterwards, bring in a box of scarves, canes and hats and have the students act like sophisticated gallery goers, and some of the students could act like the artists and have a art show opening with cheese and crackers. This could help the students understand what it is to be a art curator, museum or gallery owner, as well as a art gallery visitor or artist, thus playing out different aspects and careers within the art world. Something to keep in mind with all of this is the appropriateness of the art or artist's concepts, how to keep it constantly educational and fun, organization of information and process, as well as assessment of progress and process. I do believe though the role playing and creating aspects of learning could seriously be a benefit to what is considered a boring aspect to art.

some websites that may interest a art history educator
and this one.

Researching

          I'm working on my thematic unit and I'm having a lot of fun, but a tough time with figuring out what to teach about within my theme. My partner and I chose insanity as the theme, this seemed, at the time to be a quirky and fun topic, but that's nonsensical to choose a topic that's quirky and fun compared to informational and awareness offering. So with the definition of insanity within my lessons being mental illness, I want this to not only serve as a process based unit, I want it to be a tool for the students to better understand our world and how art is apart of it.
           So in my lesson that I executed with my classmates I introduced them to the artist Judith Scott and used her as an example of the technique of wrapping in a repetitive manner. This allowed the students a sneak peak of the capability and mistreatment Judith composed and went through. I'd like to do the same thing with each lessons, but have a progression up to some point. So I'd like my unit to posses an aspect of material manipulation, a research aspect, more material manipulation with a connection between their material and their concept, and then a large instillation incorporating all the lessons in one big lesson... but how to compose something like this.

"wrapping of wire" Teacher Sample from lesson I

"Pinching Wire" Teacher Sample for Lesson I

         
                










                    I've been doing a lot of research on outsider artist's and classics that were considered artistic genius's due to a mental illness. This is a website that gives me a good history and progression of the understanding of insanity within art. From this website I found a art gallery/ museum located in a historical asylum in London called Bethlem royal psychiatric. This is now a gallery/museum where a lot of shows are based on mental illness within the art's, not as a genius but as a theme. Within this theme there are shows based on treatments such as LSD to those with schizophrenia and how it effect's there art, homages to Louis Wain, and collaboration of works done by patients.

         I really would like to base this unit as if I were running a sculpture class compared to a studio. I want everything to work up to the importance of sculpture within the art world because I feel it is under appreciated within the schooling system. I feel this could be a perfect medium and style for this theme, I just need to figure out how I want to put these lesson's in order and what it will lead up to. With this project I have learned how hard it is to create a coherent unit, how to be sensitive within the lesson making world and overall classroom world, and the amount of studying, researching and investigating creative teachers go through every time they make a unit.

Comics could be the next text book, and how it's important to communicate with the whole staff once you work for a district.

        
       So I went home for the holiday week and on my way back I thought I'd stop in at one of my favorite little city-towns, Hudson. When I was there I realized this guy that I went out on a date with once was also visiting from Chicago. I took this as a sign to meet up again, since our first date was so fun. So we met up at a great bar/restaurant called the Red Dot and started catching up immediately over some Makers Mark... now your probably wondering why the hell is she blogging about this for her Theory and Practice class. Hold on to your trousers, I'm getting there. So we started talking about comics, because he's a big nerd and Chicago supports a lot of comic stores. We started talking about comics and jumping from that to my education experience. It reminded me of the guest speaker, who I so terribly have forgotten his name, but we had this great speaker come in and talk about the importance of comics and how they can change the classroom! I thought it was a great idea, but didn't think much more on it, until this nerdy cute date I was on.
                   Nerdy date was telling me about this great comic called Understanding Comics by Scott Mccloud. He was saying that there is this great tension of narration and visual representation, and how reading comics creates a different train of thinking as well as a completely different path way in your brain to travel compared to just reading a book or looking at  picture. This was very intriguing to me, because being someone who doesn't very much enjoy reading (it puts me to sleep), and has had a hard time their whole life with finding comfort with reading, this could be a possibility for me to find a hidden path into enjoying a narrative on paper. Then this got me to thinking about the decrease in reading skills and English skills within our school systems.  Now I'm not saying get rid of books or picture books, but why not have a book that applies to both learning styles of visual v.s literature. I know I personally am a visual learner compared to literature, but my friend Emily is the complete opposite. I also remember reading To Teach: the journey, in comics in curriculum and instruction, and being so excited when ever a chapter was assigned. I'm not saying get rid of the old, but I am saying embrace and accommodate with the new.
                    This all branched off to our discussion on the comic Maus, and how comics are a great bridge into relating, and finding comfort from a lack of shock with a topic or emotion. This specific comic is a illustration and narrative of the authors father being in the Holocaust and surviving from a death camp. This got me thinking about the idea of how important it is for Art educators to represent their curriculum and the importance of their subjects to their coworkers of other subjects, and how important to the students well rounded education that all the teachers are on the same page, as well as layering and weaving everyone curriculum and lessons into a universal unit. Now I know that's wordy, and I know it seems ideal, BUT I do think that this is something that could be practiced with small movements, like talking over lunch with your history coworker about a great comic including visual arts and narrative called Maus that you believe could really help the students engage and almost be more comfortable with the topic due to it's humorous imagary of mice and cats, and subtle ways of creating the terror and horror of the victims lives. I believe that a student will learn from shock, but this will be forced and rushed, compared to if a student in engaged and comforitable, they will want to dissect and dig deeper into the topic. I also feel this is a good example of why comics would be a good tool for learning, because having the control over the time you are exposed to the images and if you want to go ahead or back, is a great practice in self motivation, researching and enjoying the time you have with a piece of literature. Things that I feel are not practiced in schools as much, or are not succeeding within the system. Something I like to remind myself constantly when living life is, if it doesn't work, fix it. Maybe we should try something different that may seem so strange and so out there, but really is very relevant and close by... comics and communication.

I want to be a sculpture teacher within a High school, I think that it's not offered enough to high schooler's, and I find it to be one of the most problem solving, research based art mediums... thus creating more effective contemporary artists or art researchers.

How to start off a lesson?

    So on Friday, Taryn and Amanda gave there lesson on positive and negative space using chance and gesture. It was an over-all amazing lesson that I would definitely love to include in my classroom, I'll be honest I don't remember what their thematic unit plan is about, but I did get what vocabulary and process they were programing into our brains. They did something a lot different then I had seen in any of the other lesson (Even my own), and it was really quite refreshing.
   They started the class with a very brief discussion and then allowed us to dive right into art playing and experimentation. Compared to beginning with a lecture-like discussion on artists, concept and vocabulary words. I remember wondering how this was all going to work out. What I mean by that is, when we do have to have a lecture-like discussion, will the class be too pumped to concentrate and participate, or will our blood be moving so much that we will want to talk more and be involved?
    So as the class progressed and we had to sit and talk about the interesting artists and their process' I noticed that the class was very involved and interested in what we were going to do next as well as how what we were talking about was going to be applied to the big white paper and our ceramic sketches. I feel like the tension between the art making at first, the discussion and then more art making was very conducive and effective. We wanted to learn, we wanted to listen, we wanted to play. It was also a good lay out to allow the students to digest a little bit before they got involved again with action and creation.
      I feel this lesson was a great example of lesson and classroom construction to keeping students involved and intrigued as well as energetic but tamed all at the same time. We were given the freedom to create and move, but then had to practice patience and calmness so that we could once again have that freedom. This is definitely something I'd like to involve into my philosophy and practice within my own classroom.

Nurturing in the class when looking at the teachers gender difference.

           Looking back at the past few semesters I've noticed this fantastic progression of nurturing by the professors that the program did, maybe without evening noticing. We had Beth for intro, who was the sweetest most animated out of the professors, which I feel was good for us who were transfers or just youngin's in general. Then we needed to get interviewed to get into the program, for me that was my introduction to Jessica and Aaron... Whoa was I intimidated, but after the interview, I was very excited to work with them and learn from there. After Beth we were introduced to Jessica and Curriculum and Instruction. Jessica still embodied the sweet, nurturing aspects as Beth, but also had sarcasm and tough love to thicken our skin. I feel it was also a good balance of her sarcasm that was a subtle introduction to working with older students, even though it was all elementary that we learned about in her class, it was still in a good characteristic and concept to have mulling over in the back of your mind, preparing us for the secondary students we would be dealing with the semester after. So senior year comes for some of us, and it's time of Practice and Theory with Aaron. Aaron has a different kind of nurturing, it's the kind that is tough and harsh, but has great intentions on truly preparing us for whats to come in student teaching and possibly our own classroom. I was very intimidated and puzzled by this immediate difference of teaching from both Beth and Jessica, and it took me a while to get use to it, but I now appreciate and respect Aaron's way of teaching.
         I find the way I am learning and what I am learning to be really impacting and challenging, which is something that I don't ever feel I encountered in such a stressful manner. Which of course doesn't sound like a positive remark, but it truly is, because I know watching my mentor teachers, that this is the name of the game. This will be my everyday life with lessons, bureaucracy, and life, and I will need to constantly be changing with the times and the core concepts and the mentality of my students. I also know, and this isn't to belittle my mentor teachers, that I am being trained to be a contemporary art teacher, which is different then what I am seeing with in my observations. I need to find ways to teach students about the world through art, not just teaching them about art and the techniques and the end result. I feel there is more metaphor and symbolic relevance within our lessons that we are creating, compared to what I've seen in the observations. This to me is more of a challenge and Aaron is drilling it into our heads to be constantly thinking about this.
      So this semester the majority of my professors are men, this is something very new to me. I've barley had male art teachers in my life, it's always been hippy woman that are super nurturing and soft when it comes to learning, a lot of coddling and positive reinforcement. Now that I am surrounded by masculine ways of teaching and learning, I have a good base to compare and contrast the difference's I see. Now I know that is teetering on the edge of generalizing, and it may be, but I'm just going to put this down in permanence to have a reference to look back at later in life to see if these observations are still in play. So something I've noticed within this semester is that male teachers tend to have a lot of sarcasm and sass within there attitude towards there students, thus creating a playful, but harsh environment. This I believe can be good for the students to be constantly on their toes, thinking about what they are doing, but still having a good time learning and communicating. I don't know if this is good for all students, but something I've also noticed with my male teachers is that they are really good at reading people and their emotions, they will push you hard, but when they see that you are about to break they give into the nurturing aspects seen with my female teachers. This is includes listening, consoling and giving advice. I almost find it to be more conducive when the male teachers do this, it shows you that they are being very supportive in that moment by showing you a different side of their personality. Reminds me of how cat's are, they are to themselves for most of the time, but when they choose to be affectionate, you really appreciate it, because it doesn't happen often.
     I've also noticed a few more characteristics within the gender difference's of teachers. One being ambition. In this article I was reading called Gender Differences in Secondary School Teachers' Control over Classroom and School Policy, the authors talk a lot about how the schools are run by males compared to female, and this has to do with career ambitions and juggling school life with home life. This is something I've noticed with multiple professors this semester, they contain a lot of ambition on their behalf and expect a lot out of themselves, this then is channeled through to what they expect from their students. This can be a positive approach and a negative approach. I know for me, this semester has been very strenuous due to heavy work loads and strict standards, I sometimes wonder if the professors take into account that students have lives outside of the classroom as well as 3 to 4 other classes. But it's good to be pushed hard and challenged. I've noticed though that the classes I find to be the most time consuming are those that are run by male professors, I then think about the loads they carry and how this may be why they believe students can carry the same load.
       I find this whole observation of the differences I see within the classroom concerning gender and nurturing to be intriguing and hope to keep ya'll informed as my research and observations conclude.

Thematic Lesson Reflection

So this was one of the most challenging lesson I've ever had to create and execute. I very much appreciated being challenged, but with time being involved I was terrified and discouraged by the idea of failure. It was a good chance to be tested on practicing what I preach, “Failure is a tool of learning, and do not fear it”. So with that in mind and meditating on this notion, I found comfort in the idea that this is one of the only safe zones to experiment with failure within my art education career, and then have the comfort of my cohort to receive feedback and support.

Katie and I went through so many lessons, three to be exact, and had no such luck on them being successful and it all lead back to the idea of “what are we trying to educate the students about” using the theme of “Insanity”. I think Katie and I didn’t consider the sensitivity of the topic and the amount of awareness we could offer on the lives of those who have mental illness's and are considered insane. So once that was noted, my brain started brewing up a lot of ideas. One being the characteristics of the people with aspergers and autism. They tend to find comfort in repetitious motions and actions which coincidentally was one of the keywords our students came up when we did our first discussion and worked on our circle chart.

So we started to research contemporary artists who incorporated the principle and element of repetition in their art making and concepts, to our surprise, there were many artists who used this element, including Judith Scott (a female fabric artist who also is diagnosed with down syndrome and autism, as well as being deaf). This was a perfect opportunity to talk about mistreatment of those with mental illness's and how art can help! Aaron said something that really resonated with me through this lesson making, and that was, “Being an art teacher isn't about making art, it's about using art as a tool to educate about the world.” This makes more sense to me, then the idea of a final product, even though the idea of a final product being attractive is always a confidence booster for everyone. This is a philosophy I wanted to incorporate in our lesson and as well as in my own classroom when the day comes.

So we came up with the idea of having our students manipulate a medium using a repetitious technique that is predetermined by chance. Katie had the idea of making the lesson into a game-like atmosphere filled with surprise and problem solving, which fit in perfectly with the lesson. I also just loved the idea that the students were being tricked into using materials and process's that they may have never used before, or even thought about using in the manner they were assigned. If I had the chance I'd take away the clay that we had them use and substitute it with another material like plastic cups, pencils, or Paper plates. We didn't really get to experiment with the clay to see how it would react as it was a last minute, lack of material, decision. I'd also have thimbles for the students who were using pins as an adhesive, because I heard a lot of the students complaining that it was hurting their fingers.

We started the lesson with a brief recap which went well, our small class recalled ideas discussed in our first presentation. We then went into our new concept of “madness” within art and repetition. Our intentions were to involve the students with defining the vocabulary words, we did this strategically with “fill in the blank's” in our bodies of definitions, but with our nerves on the edge, we totally flew past that idea and filled the blanks in for them. I feel if I could do it again I'd definitely leave room for more student involvement and discussion. It got very lecture-like and one sided, and I don’t feel the connects with the philosophy of the specific art making we wanted to have them execute, which I was hoping would open a lot of dialog and problem solving with their cohorts. Another thing I would have liked to have done was to have the rubrics in the box's so that when they opened their material box, they would have been surprised with a friendly reminder of how they were being graded. I think this a) would have been helpful for them to see, and b) have a humorous touch that this assignment was full of surprises, even ones that were haunting.

If I also had a chance to do this over, which realistically, I will, I would have liked to have saved more time for the recap and discussion at the end of our lesson.I knew we only had five minutes left and people were still cleaning up and rushing, and I choked and lacked the thought of bring back the discussion to our concepts. But what I really wanted to talk about was; some of the problems they had and how they resolved it, and how they could prove their pieces possibly embodied the concept of “madness”, and what the effect on the viewer and artist of repeating something technically as well as aesthetically created. But the truth of the matter was we didn't have enough time to do this, and I never received the answers. I was very pleased though with the art making skills and what came out of the lesson as a final product. I really think it's a great lesson as well as teaching students the idea of process and problem solving within art. I feel this could result in some really great pieces within a high school and could even offer the idea of creating an instillation, expanding the students mind on the amount of space their art can take up. Over all, as nerve racking as it was, I feel really good about going through with this project, getting a better insight in sensitivity within a topic, experiencing time management first hand, or lack of, and finally how good it feels to see a class excited about what they are doing and learning as well as having a beautiful display of final results.