Program Synthesis

Reflective Practice

When I started this program, I was in my second year of teaching. As I reflect on who I was as a person and as an educator, I notice a huge change due to a few factors. Time, appropriate medication, and this online course are responsible for my confidence and excitement I have for my pedagogical path. Others may not notice this change, but internally, the multiple subtle changes and lessons have made a large impact. I remember feeling insecure in my teaching practices. I think this is normal as a new teacher and I still feel this way sometimes. However, I think with time, one grows more confident in their routine and decisions. I also believe this course has had a multiplier effect on my confidence and pedagogical decisions. I briefly talked about anxiety before. I never realized how it was effecting my daily life until it no longer was. I had ability to think through and react. A calmness made its new home in my mind and altered the way I think, process, and act around my students. I no longer feel nervous and panicky when things don't go quite right, I have more patience and less yelling when I feel overwhelmed by mess and noise (which happens constantly in my art classroom). Finally, this course gave me a new lens to look and teach through. I've found my online reflections and journals have allowed me to make a more consistent practice of reflection throughout my daily routine. I am more thoughtful in my responses to my students which have made classes more meaningful and have made my relationships with students stronger.

My recent observations and interview were extremely impactful for me. When you are on the inside looking around you, there is only one perspective, and sometimes that perspective can be skewed. The process of truly observing, interviewing, and analyzing what I found allowed me to be in the position of the outside looking in. I was able to gain another perspective that allowed me to truly understand my students and the impact of my teaching, lessons, environment, and personal conversations. Realizing how much impact educators have on students was eye opening for me and made me feel emotional. My career allows me a position of privilege that I didn't understand before. The realization of our impact was emotional for me and will be in the forefront of my teaching moving forward.

Transformative Courses

Almost all of the courses I've taken have been transformative to my practice, but the two that stand out the most to me are Teaching Studio Activity (ARTEDUC 7604) and To Teach What We Don't Know. Teaching Studio Activity was one of the first courses of our program. I was always interested and appreciative of small moments and how they could easily be changed. During my undergraduate time, I created a unit that focused on our perspective and the size of items and moments. We created a project where students were directed think of a small everyday object (like your glasses, or a contact case) and create a cardboard sculpture of that item, but oversized. We talked about how it's usefulness would change and how we are impacted by simple, often mundane things, such as the size of daily objects. I made a strong connection with an idea I was already interested in and the work of Nina Katchadourian (specifically Seat Assignment), Alan Kaprow, and S.R. Walker. There is an idea that stuck with me from this course and has continued to pop up as I dive deeper into researching play and art making. The idea that I remember is this: "Positioning the everyday under unusual circumstances, the ordinary become extraordinary" (Walker, 2014, p. 2). I use this quote as a goal. I want to present my students the opportunity to shift their perspective; to make their ordinary art class become extraordinary. I know that this isn't something that can happen all of the time (because then it will no longer be extraordinary), but I want to create a curriculum and a space that allows for unusual circumstances and new perspectives to arise. I believe through the disruption of the norm/expectation of what is going to happen or what will happen, I can provide my students the playfulness I'm looking for in an environment that will spark creativity, independence, and plant a seed for thoughtfulness in their daily lives as my students age and move forward.

While play and disruption of routine may seem trivial at a glance, I truly believe there is potential for what this practice has the ability to do. I realized from my interviews how impactful my lessons are. This lead me to think about how these moments in my class could set a precedence for future situations. My students could be 40 years old and think "I remember that one time in art class we did "xyz". It was so weird/cool/fun because...." Who is to say how that moment taught that student, but maybe that moment allowed them to look at the world differently. That idea is what is so amazing and impactful to me. These moments that are trivial to us as educators can leave huge footprints in our students lives. With a shift of our perspective, we can see how an everyday, ordinary task (like teaching an art lesson) can become and extraordinary memory and lesson.

To Teach What We Don't Know taught by Dr. Ballengee-Morris was such a fun shock to me. I had absolutely no idea what to expect when scheduling this class. Even the first day of this course I wasn't sure how this was going to relate to art education. Was I signing up for a history class? I was worried the course was going to feel unrelated to what I needed to know and a waste of time. Little did I know I would be looking at Native American art and artifacts, interviewing a local museum curator of Native American artifacts, learning about pow wows and making fry bread! I remember one of our first assignments was watching a video about the true history of the colonization. I never truly learned about the history of our nation's native people and the reality was shocking to me. I realized that even our own truth is skewed, and it is important to truly analyze information you are given. Another assignment that stuck out to me was about the Earthworks and how it related to different ways of knowing. We learned about these large mounds and their different shapes and believed meanings. It would be nearly impossible today to create these masterpieces with no technology and additional resources. Though Native Americans didn't have the techonology and "knowledge" we do today, they had a different type of knowledge and access to knowledge; one I believe to be a deeper understanding than what we have today. Before this course, I never thought about how we know, or how our knowledge is transferred. This course was entertaining and enlightening. Not only did I gain a deeper understanding of important history that is nearly lost, I also gained a newer empathetic lens in my teaching style. This course is proof that there is not one true way of doing, learning, or knowing something. We all have our strengths and it is important to notice and highlight those strengths within your student body. Teaching What We Don't Know also shows the importance of a multicultural curriculum. History is going to be lost if we don't make it a priority to teach our students about other cultures and practices. As a white teacher teaching a majority of white students, it is also critical to teach these new cultures and practices in a way that is not ostracizing or introducing with an exotic lens.

I previously stated that all of the courses throughout this program have been transformative. Each had their own strength and focus that was a building block for our pedagogy. I appreciate that this program teaches us all the same lessons, but we are gaining different knowledge and understanding that is relevant to our lives and our students. These two courses were my favorite. I have to laugh as I find similarities popping up because of my interests, almost cyclical. I am interested in the wonder, play, freedom, and knowledge that can be gained with an artist/artistic perspective. This interest has me drawn to reseraching play in the art room. I realized that play in the art room (and in general) is about disrupting the normalcy of our lives. Play poses challenges and lessons for us to achieve and learn. This interest in play has lead me to make deep connections with these two courses I've talked about and what made these two courses favorites of mine was their disruption of my normal. They have challenged me to think for myself and dive deeper into concepts I am unfamiliar with because they sparked an intrigue due to their novelty. The power I described play can posess has worked on me. It has altered my perspective and has molded me into a mindful, empathatic and excited educator.

Resources:

Walker, S.R. (2014) Everyday Play.