Reflection
1. How did you incorporate contemporary art as public pedagogy in your plan?
Throughout this unit I incorporated contemporary art as public pedagogy in my plan by thinking deliberately about how my students would experience the act of connecting art with inner self and reflection. Not only were students utilizing their knowledge and skill in the making of art, they also were on a journey of self exploration and tasked with sharing this journey through their art. By giving students a focus, they were able to not only experience vulnerability in their own art, but also the other of others. By studying contemporary artists and even by studying the art of their classmates, students had the chance to make connections and identify uniting factors within each of us. This unit guided students to not only think about the art making, but also to move deeper into thinking about the human experience and how we can use art and music as tools for emotionally identification and expression.
2. What did you imagine would happen in teaching the lesson?
I had hoped this lesson would serve as a catalyst for deeper conversations about feelings, mood, and experiences we all share. I also hoped this would serve as an opportunity for students to see multiple perspectives and they would have the chance to see different perspectives of the same moment represented. I hoped that this lesson would help to cultivate student engagement and excitement and start a conversation about how we experience mood in media and art. I expected there to be a range in which students were able to engage in the activity and maintain the stamina for working and listening.
3. What challenges did you expect to face? How did you handle challenges?
As I imagined teaching this lesson to my students, I was unsure of their ability to do enough true self reflection to create meaningful work. One skill we have been working on this year is enhancing our vocabulary of feelings and moods to grow in our ability to understand how we are feeling. Often, I notice that with a model or a demonstration, many students will imitate my work with fidelity. Since the objective of this lesson was for students to make connections between feelings, music, shapes, lines, and color, I wanted this to be something deeply personal for students. I anticipated students having many questions about this lesson and I anticipated students struggling through the beginning of this lesson. Since this lesson was the first of the unit, I wanted it to serve as an introduction to the kind of learning we'd be engaging in throughout the unit. I was anticipating adapting this lesson as I taught to meet the needs of the present moment.
4. What changes (curriculum or pedagogy) or research are you interested in doing to prepare to teach the lesson? Why is this preparation important?
Moving forward, as I continue to teach more lessons related to this unit, I would like to pursue how students can use art to help process feelings or emotions. I would also love to learn more about contemporary artists that are exploring similar themes in their work and think about how to bring this very heavy, and somewhat open-ended concept into a first grade classroom. Moving forward, I am hoping to work on collaborating with our school's guidance counselor to work with students that are struggling with emotional regulation. I would love to facilitate groups centered around exploring identifying feelings through art and using this as a tool for getting to know oneself and expressing oneself.
5. Reflecting on the entire AED 813 course, what stands out or is significant to you now?
After engaging in learning and discussion as a part of this course, I feel as though I have become a more reflective educator. One way in which I have been reflecting is by thinking about which voices are being heard in my classroom and in the stories I read, artwork I display, and music I play. Not only has reading and engaging in coursework helped me become more reflective in evaluating the perspectives of others, but reading blog entries by my peers as also helped with this process. I have enjoyed engaging in the format of a blog post because I feel as though I have had the chance to experience vastly different perspectives on a united topic. Engaging through this medium seems as though it could be very impersonal, but it has offered me the opportunity to share my thinking in a very open and vulnerable way.
Throughout this unit I incorporated contemporary art as public pedagogy in my plan by thinking deliberately about how my students would experience the act of connecting art with inner self and reflection. Not only were students utilizing their knowledge and skill in the making of art, they also were on a journey of self exploration and tasked with sharing this journey through their art. By giving students a focus, they were able to not only experience vulnerability in their own art, but also the other of others. By studying contemporary artists and even by studying the art of their classmates, students had the chance to make connections and identify uniting factors within each of us. This unit guided students to not only think about the art making, but also to move deeper into thinking about the human experience and how we can use art and music as tools for emotionally identification and expression.
2. What did you imagine would happen in teaching the lesson?
I had hoped this lesson would serve as a catalyst for deeper conversations about feelings, mood, and experiences we all share. I also hoped this would serve as an opportunity for students to see multiple perspectives and they would have the chance to see different perspectives of the same moment represented. I hoped that this lesson would help to cultivate student engagement and excitement and start a conversation about how we experience mood in media and art. I expected there to be a range in which students were able to engage in the activity and maintain the stamina for working and listening.
3. What challenges did you expect to face? How did you handle challenges?
As I imagined teaching this lesson to my students, I was unsure of their ability to do enough true self reflection to create meaningful work. One skill we have been working on this year is enhancing our vocabulary of feelings and moods to grow in our ability to understand how we are feeling. Often, I notice that with a model or a demonstration, many students will imitate my work with fidelity. Since the objective of this lesson was for students to make connections between feelings, music, shapes, lines, and color, I wanted this to be something deeply personal for students. I anticipated students having many questions about this lesson and I anticipated students struggling through the beginning of this lesson. Since this lesson was the first of the unit, I wanted it to serve as an introduction to the kind of learning we'd be engaging in throughout the unit. I was anticipating adapting this lesson as I taught to meet the needs of the present moment.
4. What changes (curriculum or pedagogy) or research are you interested in doing to prepare to teach the lesson? Why is this preparation important?
Moving forward, as I continue to teach more lessons related to this unit, I would like to pursue how students can use art to help process feelings or emotions. I would also love to learn more about contemporary artists that are exploring similar themes in their work and think about how to bring this very heavy, and somewhat open-ended concept into a first grade classroom. Moving forward, I am hoping to work on collaborating with our school's guidance counselor to work with students that are struggling with emotional regulation. I would love to facilitate groups centered around exploring identifying feelings through art and using this as a tool for getting to know oneself and expressing oneself.
5. Reflecting on the entire AED 813 course, what stands out or is significant to you now?
After engaging in learning and discussion as a part of this course, I feel as though I have become a more reflective educator. One way in which I have been reflecting is by thinking about which voices are being heard in my classroom and in the stories I read, artwork I display, and music I play. Not only has reading and engaging in coursework helped me become more reflective in evaluating the perspectives of others, but reading blog entries by my peers as also helped with this process. I have enjoyed engaging in the format of a blog post because I feel as though I have had the chance to experience vastly different perspectives on a united topic. Engaging through this medium seems as though it could be very impersonal, but it has offered me the opportunity to share my thinking in a very open and vulnerable way.
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