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.