Courtney Latorre

  Unit: Future Forward - Adventures in World Building Products:  Mural - Inside of the building. Student illustrations will be scanned and printed on ceramic tile. Blacktop - outside on the playground. School-wide project where we are thinking about composition and storytelling through abstraction.   Background:  Operating under the assumption that humans have always wanted to record their history and experiences.    Launch/Planning/Introduction to the Unit “ After the efforts of neighbors and friends, the neglected wall becomes a work of street art affirming the story of the neighborhood, its history, and the people who live there. Hey, Wall is a celebration of street art and artists, but it is equally a celebration of the heroism of children who take action to become change agents for their communities. Author Susan Verde uses spare text often with repeated sentence starters to weave a hopeful narrative about the ways a wall can unite rather than divide ...

  When I was thinking about differences, I chose to focus on gender roles and differences that have and still exist today.  I chose this because I feel as though I have a perspective as a woman and a take that others may or may not have experienced. I selected the films, “What a Girl Wants”, “Killing Us Softly 4: Adverstising’s Image of Women”, and “Tough Guise 2: Violence, Manhood, and American Culture” (Media Education Foundation, 2001, 2010, 2013). These films all spoke to how women and men are perceived by society, including the opposite gender.   In “What a Girl Wants” (2001), perspective and symbolism of gender are discussed, specifically how women are perceived by men.  For instance, when discussing a music video made by a female artist, men perceived the artists point very differently than women.  Men thought that what the artist was singing about was literal, that she was talking about a physical action in her lyrics.  That physical action bei...

  Empower Through Difference I’m going to describe how I empower remote students through difference when teaching through a hybrid model.  Although this situation is not typically what one thinks of when thinking about differing abilities and privilege, this topic is one that has been on my mind lately and has benefitted me immensely to explore.  Difference is essentially defined as the perceived other.  Those in privilege do not always recognize these differences because they are not living with the effects of their own actions.  This frame of thinking heavily relates to students learning in the hybrid model.   In the hybrid model we are currently operating under, each class has, what is termed as, in-person and remote students.  The in-person learners outnumber remote students usually by at least 3:1.  For example, out of a class of 16 children, there might be 13 in person and 3 remote.  Other classes have more remote students, but the...

  Diversity has not always been prevalent in education, let alone art education.  The course readings on diversity have made it apparent the overwhelming trend when it comes to inclusion of diversity, is that as time goes on diversity has become more and more accepted, expected, and even celebrated.  The culturally responsive teaching that is happening is allowing this diversity to grow in unprecedented ways.  Teachers are using sustainable teaching practices that take culture into account, therefore account for diversity.  This teaching and learning takes into account how perspectives differ from culture to culture and how that difference impacts how we see ourselves.  When thinking about teaching multiple perspectives, it becomes apparent to think about the entanglement of moral/ethical and cultural values. This brings to mind one of my colleagues who told me about a time she taught a third grade social studies lesson on the meaning and importance of cult...

  The cultural artifact I selected for this exploration is the Apple Watch.  The Apple Watch is a watch made by Apple Inc.  This watch, worn on people’s wrists as watches are, has the capabilities of a phone and a computer.  With Siri, people can literally ask their watch about the weather.  It allows users to be reached at any time or place, and inversely, to reach out at any time or place.  Society’s common demand for immediate attention and gratification is exemplified by the Apple Watch. Whether it is through a vibration or a sound, users are notified when others are attempting to contact them.  They are notified when a set alarm sounds. When a “Severe Weather Statement” is in effect. When an Amber Alert is issued. When the device needs to be updated.  When an event is scheduled.  When an email is received.  When social media is used. When a reminder is issued.  Not only is the Apple Watch its own entity, but it is also a condu...

  Introduction:  When I glance at my identity map, it is clear that I am privileged.  Upon closer inspection, I realize how much of that privilege I use to live my life everyday and how it shapes me as a person.  The majority of my identity is very fixed, which tells me that I have the privilege of stability.  The ways in which my identity has changed has been the result of my privilege and society catering to certain qualities I possess.  Prior to this map, when asked about my identity, I would have described myself as a middle-class, white woman.  When my identity is mapped in more detail, it shows how that basic description is possible.  For instance, I am middle-class because I had access to a quality education up to and including college due to the fact that I was a white citizen in the western world.   What surprised me about this mapping was that many of the ways that I am personally oppressed are not extreme because I fall into a...

Future Visions It’s the year 2053 and I am in year 38 of my teaching career.  As I walk into my empty classroom, I am greeted with the prospect of my students soon to arrive.  I set up my virtual desk last night, in preparation for this morning’s lesson, and all the supplies are ready to be sent out to students when they access the password.  I made today’s “starynight”, as we will be painting constellations to go along with students’ astronomy unit.  They have researched a particular constellation on their ILD (individual learning device).  While I do miss the old days of setting out tactile supplies and using them to create ourselves, this makes my set up so much quicker and less messy.  The only thing that is more challenging is making sure the 3D printer is loaded with the proper materials.  It’s costly, but surely cheaper than supplies for all of my 450 students. Students enter my room one by one, some carrying their ILDs responsibly while oth...

CyberGame Pedagogy Throughout my journey into investigating digital game play as education, I landed on planning a lesson using the program Scratch.  When first diving into the world of creating digital games to teach art, I found some game platforms to be more self explanatory and easy to follow than others. Even though I use technology often and am very experienced using it as a classroom and art teacher, making the games and the computer knowledge that comes along with that seemed complicated to me. Having to fully understand a game or digital resource both inside and out before handing it over to students is imperative, so I had to do some learning of my own.  After reading about story and its possible link to this digital world and Han's connection to student motivation, I realized I wanted to pick something that would be motivating to my elementary students.  Looking through all the possibilities, Scratch seemed like the best tool for me because it lets them play ...