Week of 4/5

An important collaboration I belong to right now would be working at the YMCA. The program I work for called DASH has many different employees and we all work together as a group to help each other prosper. At my site I have two other coworkers and it is always a blast going to work with them and learning from each other. We help each other when we have a problem and feed off support in order to have a better day week after week. Working at the YMCA has truly been an amazing experience where I have met lots of different people and we are all united under the Southbay family. Working in a team teaches a person how to be responsible and how to support other people around you. We are all looking to succeed but sometimes we need the help of others to do so. I think working in teams helps you become more open minded to the way others think and may see something differently than you. In the classroom students can help each other understand different social situations. I think sometimes the best teachers for students are each other, they can motivate each other and learn new things by talking about citizenship and coming up with ways that it is important.

Week of 3/22

I enjoyed visiting the New Children's Museum because it was a fun way of learning how kids can be entertained and learn different educational values. When the kids go to visit the museum they are presented with a lot of different ways to learn through art and new media. The museum uses music, art displays, chariots, colors and a lot more to help kids engage in something fun but at the same time educational. For example, the rain house is an entertaining part in the museum where the children can use their imagination in order to interact in the rain house as well as figure out how it sounds like it is raining but it really isn't. The room with the cameras and different costumes help children become aware of themselves. Right when they walk in they see it is a big room to play in but after awhile they realize they are actually on the screen and focus more on what they are doing and becoming aware of themselves on camera. The barn house for toddlers is another fun way for younger children to become aware of music and lights. They can play with different light switches and become aware of how the light turns off and on as well as dance to the music and listen to all the different noises the animals make. I think the museum can be an educational yet entertaining experience for younger children who need more than just a normal lecture structured classroom; they need a hands on experience where they really understand what they are being taught.

Activity 8, Page 180

It was hard to find specific artists that demonstrate non traditional ways in the typical drawing and painting art forms. I was able to find 3 artists that demonstrate different styles of making sculptures. One example is Kaiser Smith who crochets fiberglass into sculptured wall hangings which is a combination of wall-hung sculpture and craft-based crochet. There is also Michael Baker, a sculptor in North Carolina, who creates sculptures by fabricating or constructing instead of carving or casting. Lastly there was an example of Gaylord Ho which uses a material called Parian II, the material looks and feels like marble but it is a lot less expensive than bronze.

Week of 3/8

1.)

a.) There are different roles of new media in art today that the book discusses such as taking photographs, CD’s, DVD’s, television and so on. These are different ways of teaching students new concepts which isn’t the typical lecture and discussion style of teaching. By implementing different and new ways of teaching such as all this media students can view the lesson and ideas in a different way. The book gives an example of a teacher who dresses herself up in different costumes and characters to portray the character they would like to demonstrate by deciding what they should wear and where the picture should be taken. The students are actively getting involved and having fun learning about a particular person through the use of a camera.

b.) One can use photography and video as educational and communication in the classroom for example by using a camera the students can create their own story, create an autobiography of themselves, and define a word or feeling just how we did through our image of power. Cameras also give the students the opportunity to illustrate emotions or what they take or learn from in a song or poem. Video can help the students share with the class a particular presentation, create a skit, and actual put together a news station for their school where they can have control of sharing with the student body events and important information.

2.)

a.) After listening to Luz Chung’s presentation I learned about the importance to connect with your students and express culture, identity and traditions in the classroom. The video demonstrated the ignorance of people towards problems in our everyday society and the quote shared with us how culture can so easily be lost. It is important to teach students how to stand up for their beliefs but also to become education in different issues that may pertain directly to them or people surrounding them.

b.) I feel that it is important to share with the students all the different cultures there are in the world and also issues other people face. It is important as an educator to keep in mind the students’ different backgrounds and experiences. I think art can help establish a common ground by sharing with the students different pictures, videos, or stories of the different cultures and traditions there are around the world. In class we did this when we read the different Cinderella versions in where there was the typical story of Cinderella and then there was more of a Native American story which portrays the same idea but in a different way.

Week 3/1

a.) The visit to SDMA was fun and educational. It was interesting to see the different ways you can connect art to the different subjects you teach to students. The tour guide did a great job in connecting the art pieces and explaining the different colors and textures. It was informative to see how you can ask questions and teach to different levels of students which connect to diverse subjects. It was also nice to see the different cultures in the variety of art pieces we looked at and examined. SDMA was a fun experience and we got a lot of information on how to teach and connect art to students.

b.) I think museums are viable and accessible to elementary and high schools if teachers actually look for it. I think a lot of schools don't know about the different museums that offer opportunities for teachers and students to go and observe art work. I'm sure just like SDMA other museums offer programs for teachers to get involved and learn how to incorporate art with school work. I remember when I was in elementary school in 6th grade we went to visit SDMA to look at an exhibition which connected to what we were learning in school.  It was an educational and exciting way to experience something different but still learned a lot about the subject we were learning about.

Week 2/22

a.) Above is a picture of my Sculptural Headdress. As I was preparing to make this headdress I decided to go for something little and delicate. I chose colors that went along with my personality as well as the typical fairytale story. The purple color is seen as very royal which is the color I used the most of but with different shades. Then I also made roses on the sides in pink and connecting it with the vine in the front to make it look different. It was a fun process where I got to show a little bit of my personality by connecting it to a fairytale princess.

b.) In a second grade classroom I think it would be a lot of fun to do a headdress like this. I think it would be interesting to look at a story like Pocahontas or even the 2 stories we looked at in class that way the boys would be able to relate a little more with by making a tribal headdress. I could read to the students the different stories we are analyzing and then have them create their own head pieces to relate to the story it and combine it to how they want it to look like.

c.) The California Content Standards for second grade literature states to recount fables and folktales from diverse cultures and to determine their message, moral or lesson. This would be a great project to do so that children have to opportunity to meet the California Standards in reading different folktales like the ones we read in class or pick different ones and then have the students reflect by making a headpieces. The students could create a headdress that demonstrates what they learned from the story.

Week 2/15

a.) After the presentation on Tuesday about VTS I noticed how valuable it is to facilitate this type of discussion with students in the classroom. Students are free to use their imagination in sharing what they see in the picture. The teacher also never gives them a lead to what it may be or if a student is wrong or right. The students just use their knowledge to describe what they see and come up with a story. They start to develop ideas off of each other and sometimes they even disagree with one another but they defend and support their ideas. They are free to share whatever they are thinking and it gives them a friendly environment to do so. It is important to let the students discuss with one another and the teacher not always telling them exactly what something is before they even have a chance to think about it.


b.) I decided to Google "artwork" in order to find the picture my friends would discuss and I found this: 

c.) During the discussion I didn't give them any information about the art piece I just told them to tell me what they saw and what it is. My 2 friends immediately noticed the heart that says the word love and soon after they noticed the image to the left with a man covering his face. They started to say that it could be something with shame and love because of the 2 images they immediately noticed. Also they saw how in the middle it looked like a tree with different branches. They also so a city type of form in the middle where the heart is. They noticed a house with someone walking in and structures that look like buildings around the heart. They thought it could be about someones life in a city and some kind of connection with love and the shame they see with the man hiding. I noticed that they fed off each others' ideas and never really disagreed but instead built the story and ideas together.

I later told them that it was an art piece done for a gay film and that the artist was trying to portray the transformation and journey of the main character through this art piece. Therefore their ideas could be correct in saying it was about love, shame and the confusion of all of it together.