Journal Six
October 7, 2019
#Breakthrough
My experience teaching at Beattie this weekend was a very exciting one! Something we have focused on in the Art Education program at CSU is the idea of creating a classroom where students have the chance to explore and play with materials in a way that fosters meaningful learning. This means that the student is engaging in a process where they guide their own learning and have "ah-ha moments" through personal discovery of given materials. Our lesson this week was one of the first I have been a part of creating and implementing that really allowed for this opportunity so successfully. Instead of creating a lesson where the goal was to make something specific, or a lesson that had a specific prompt, there was no expectation for an end product whatsoever. Students were shown how to use materials like modge-podge glue and tissue paper with the option of adding marker as well. By asking and showing students what the possibilities were when working with these materials and then turning them loose to play with them, I saw a plethora of "ah-ha moments" and active praxis, which is the theory that action proceeds understanding or conception. Students dove right in, layering the tissue paper to see what effect it had, or tearing it to create images of a dragon. More than a few students saw the relation between the delicate tissue and the feeling of a delicate flower, many made flowers in their sketchbooks. Others pushed the material to their limits, adding a lot of watery glue and noticed how it pulled the dye out of the tissue paper, which they spread with paintbrushes. All of these moments were wonderful examples of learning like I had never witnessed before, I was elated!
For me personally, this experience helped me understand why I have been learning these theories and that they WORK! I have been frustrated in the past as I wasn't clear on why we couldn't ask students to make the same thing (all the time) nor did I feel confident that students would take to this method and stay on track and actually learn something. But in this teaching moment it totally did work, and it was magical! It made me realize that in my future teachings, whenever I am introducing something new to my students, there needs to be time dedicated to exploration and discovery of materials without the fear of doing something "wrong" or the pressure of creating a "successful" end product. This makes my lessons meaningful to my students because their learning is deep and personal.
My art representation of this experience represents my hashtag, Breakthrough. This word describes my experiences in finally breaking through and understanding the teaching philosophies I have learned at CSU thus far. I chose to create a painting of a waterfall. I imagined the anticipation of a flowing river until it reaches the edge of a cliff, the "breakthrough" moment when it experiences a dramatic change. It is the perfect visual for how my teaching experience felt inside!
For me personally, this experience helped me understand why I have been learning these theories and that they WORK! I have been frustrated in the past as I wasn't clear on why we couldn't ask students to make the same thing (all the time) nor did I feel confident that students would take to this method and stay on track and actually learn something. But in this teaching moment it totally did work, and it was magical! It made me realize that in my future teachings, whenever I am introducing something new to my students, there needs to be time dedicated to exploration and discovery of materials without the fear of doing something "wrong" or the pressure of creating a "successful" end product. This makes my lessons meaningful to my students because their learning is deep and personal.
My art representation of this experience represents my hashtag, Breakthrough. This word describes my experiences in finally breaking through and understanding the teaching philosophies I have learned at CSU thus far. I chose to create a painting of a waterfall. I imagined the anticipation of a flowing river until it reaches the edge of a cliff, the "breakthrough" moment when it experiences a dramatic change. It is the perfect visual for how my teaching experience felt inside!