December 1^st: Final Lesson plan presentation and printmaking

In Class on Tuesday December 1^st, the last lesson plan presentation was shown. The group did a lesson on the fall season, and the artwork they did with it was really cool. I think that this would be a great lesson plan for showing and explaining to smaller students how and why the weather changes, and the effect it has on our surroundings. 

            

            For the rest of class we were given the option of either glazing our clay projects or doing a printmaking lesson. I decided on doing the printmaking, and I made my little sister a pillowcase with “Live to Dance” on it for one of her 16^th birthday presents (which is today). 

                                                                    20x20x20

20 contemporary artists

1.)    Lucian Freud

2.)    Matthew Barney

3.)    Jeff Koons

4.)    Damien Hirst

5.)    Frank Stella

6.)    Gerhard Richter

7.)    Rita Ackerman

8.)    Jose Bernal

9.)    Vitto Acconci

10.)  Albert Oehlen

11.)     Janet Biggs

12.)   Artur Barrio

13.)   Anish Kapoor

14.)     Richard Prince

15.)    Bruce Nauman

16.)    Ida Applebroog

17.)    Chantal Akerman

18.)   Vanessa Beecroft

19.)     Dan Christensen

20.)   Keith Haring

Artists of different backgrounds

1.)    Anna Ancher

2.)    Frida Kahlo

3.)    Romaine Brooks

4.)    Vanessa Bell

5.)    Lee Krasner

6.)    Juan Munoz

7.)    Luis Royo

8.)    Pablo Rey

9.)    Gloria Munoz

10.)  Gaston Orellana

11.)  Kelly Church

12.) Carla Hemlock

13.) Aguilar Family

14.)  Joe Fedderson

15.)   Ira Lujin

16.)  Augusta Savage

17.)  Renee Stout

18.) Alma Thames

19.)    Joyce J. Scott

20.)    Cauleen Smith

20 non-traditional artists

1.)    Andy Warhol

2.)    Saarinen and Bandel

3.)    Guzlon and Lincoln Borglum

4.)    Edvard Munch

5.)    Salvador Dali

6.)    Abed Abdi

7.)    Louis Amateis

8.)    Woody Van Amen

9.)    Silvio Apponyi

10.)  Kate Vogel

11.)  Italo Scanga

12.)   Ginny Ruffner

13.)   Rick Mills

14.) Dante Marioni

15.) Casbas Markus

16.)  Tammy Garcia

17.) Rupert Deese

18.) Nampeyo

19.)  Toshiko Takaezu

20.)   Edith Heath

                   November 17^th and 19^th: Presenting our lesson plans

           In class on the 17^th, two groups presented their lesson plans. One covered the way that Earth revolved around the sun and caused the changes of seasons, while the other lesson taught about various holidays celebrated around the world. For both lessons we were given the chance to make art and learn about ways to incorporate our lessons into the classroom. Dr. Johnson critiqued as they went along, and people in the class gave positive feedback to the presenters.

On the 19^th, my group and I presented. Before us another group presented about the symbols and history of Native Americans, and showed us ways to make paint and colors from various natural resources (such as grass, roots, and berries). We were then given the chance to carve our own Native American symbols (or symbols that we felt best represented us) into a piece of carving pad. Then we picked one of the nature based colors to fill in the carving.

For our lesson plan we focused on Winter Holidays around the world and the traditions of various cultures around the world. We used countries such as Ethiopia, Iran (Persia), Australia and China to emphasis and show the different ways of celebrating the holidays. It was a lot of fun creating the PowerPoint and showing the different foods and decorations these countries used. It was also a lot of fun to compare them to our traditions here. We set up 3 different stations to highlight and emphasis the lesson: a station to make holiday cards with various greetings in foreign languages; a station to create an ornament; and a station to draw something that symbolized the holidays for you.

It was brought to our attention that this lesson would need to be tweaked so that we could include students with different backgrounds, or for those who do not celebrate the holidays. I could see how this could pose problems, but I also believe that if you set up your environment in your class as one that is warm and accepting to all students (like a judgement free zone) then kids will not feel so self-conscious and aware of their differences, or view their differences as a hindrance. I also believe that you have to find appropriate and engaging activities for students who do not celebrate holidays, and do not make them feel like they have to justify or explain their reasoning behind why they do not celebrate.

All in all though, it was a fun lesson plan and I am happy that we are now done with it J.

Week of November 10^th and 12^th: how to critique art and working on our lesson plans

In class on November 10^th, we looked at a PowerPoint about the various ways to critique art, and the different techniques that artists can apply in their pieces. In terms of technique, we talked about how shape, light, use of lines, and symmetry can all be used in positive ways in art. With such techniques, you can sharpen or heighten the detail of your piece, along with drawing the viewer’s eye to a certain aspect of the piece. I thought it was coo how symmetry and light can play such a huge rule in how the piece is perceived, and the way that so many people can either see or not see the same thing in a piece.

We then moved onto the ways that people can critique art. There are three ways to critique art:

1.)    Realism: does the painting look like similar to something we would see in real life (like does the horse drawing have the features and look of a horse)

2.)    Emotion: does the image convey the contents emotion

3.)    Does the piece conform and use the principles of art.

We also discussed how art critique does not have to mean something negative, and that it is okay to incorporate these rules into our classroom as long as we set the precedence of politeness.

In class on the 12^th, we were given the class period to get with our groups to work on our lesson plan projects. We were all assigned a group to work with, and within that group we had to create 4 lesson plans that were similar in subject, and that all tied in the TEKS and other requirements for a lesson plan. My group decided on teaching about Winter Holiday celebrations and traditions around the world. I chose the celebration of Diwali, and tied that into the subject of culture and world history.

Week of November 3^rd and 5^th: Discussion and going over what is due for the rest of semester

                        In class on November 3^rd, we started discussing the last pages of our textbook. During this class period, we talked about arranged marriages and how we would handle this situation along with any other cultural situations that could arise in our classrooms. After a little bit of questioning and discussion, we came to the agreement that as Teachers it is not our job to step into such personal matters. We do not have knowledge about their culture, and often times it is such a personal thing to discuss, it is best to leave it up to the parents and their communities. We should however be open to our students and create an environment where they feel safe to come to us with any problems, worries or concerns they may have. I believe that no matter what your personal views are, you should never make your students feel like they are not welcome in their own classroom, or that they should not feel comfortable talking to us about their life.

            In class on November 5^th, we played catch up. Since the end of semester is nearing, we talked about what all would be due over the next couple of weeks, and the requirements and expectations for those assignments.

Week of October 27^th and 29^th: my second absence and various topics for discussion

     I was not in attendance in class on the 27^th. Due to a prior commitment for an organization I am in, I had to go help set up for an event.

            When I came back to class on the 29^th, I soon realized that I had missed basically everything that was important for the month. There was an extra credit assignment that was given were we could go watch a documentary in the sub about sexual abuse and what consent means. In class, we spent the most of our time discussing this time, and detailing what consent means to us. After this, we moved onto the topic of the school system (no idea how we made that leap) and the differences between public school and private. 
 We touched on the fact that our major is often ridiculed by our peers as being “an easy major” and the consequences this can have on our careers and the view of teachers.

I know that I am way too quick in apologizing for my major. When my friends tell me that they are engineers or business majors, I always say I am education and that “It isn’t as hard as y’alls though”. I realize that I need to stop apologizing or talking down my major, and realize that what I am focusing on is just as important as other people’s paths.

 Week of October 20^th and 22nd: more clay and discussing Disney

            During class on October 20^th, we continued to work on our clay projects. While we did this, Dr.  Johnson started a discussion about the impact Disney had/ can have on children. He had assigned us the homework of working of watching a Documentary called “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” which covered the topic of how Disney movies can allegedly change the way children can view what a healthy relationship is when they are adults. I personally did not fully agree with the argument. I do agree that we are exposed to images and ideas that help mold our views of the world at a young age, but I do not believe Disney is the root of the problem. I know Dr. Johnson was more arguing the point that Disney can be a ring in the ladder of our social views, but even then I slightly disagree. In the end though, I think it is should be left up to the parents to decide what they are comfortable with their children watching. For example, my parents would let me watch Disney all day every day, but would rarely let us watch anything above a PG rating until we were about 13-14. Also, the schools I went to were strict about what we were allowed to watch. Disney movies were never played, along with movies that could possibly shape the way students viewed their role in society (like boys feeling like they always had to be the hero or could never ask for help, or that girls always had to look certain way). In all, this discussion was quite awkward, and I spent the majority of it hiding behind the shelves where the clay wheels were.

            Class on October 22^nd was spent finishing up our clay projects, I had decided on using a coiling method. It was easier than I had anticipated (though Jessica did give me quite a few pointers) and I was able to finish making a coin holder/bowl by the end of the class period We were then told to put our clay on a shelf to let it dry.